Philadelphia Inquirer
PHILADELPHIA — A police sergeant was shot in the shoulder this morning when he knocked away a gun pointed to his head by a man in West Philadelphia, authorities say.
Sgt. Robert Ralston, 46, who fired back after he was wounded, was treated at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania for a graze wound and released.
Police were hunting for the possibly wounded gunman and a companion.
Deputy Commissioner Richard Ross said Raltson, assigned to the 19th District, stopped two men on railroad tracks at 56th Street and Lancaster Avenue about 4 a.m.
One man ran but the other pulled a silver revolver and pointed it at the sergeant’s head, Ross said.
He said Ralston knocked the gun away and it went off, wounding him the shoulder, Ross said, adding the action may have saved the officer’s life.
Ralston, a 21-year veteran of the force, got off at least one shot and believed he hit the gunman, who ran east on the tracks, police said.
Police described the gunman as a black man whose hair was in corn rows. He has a tattoo over his left eye and was wearing a T-shirt. He was armed with a silver revolver, police said.
Officers with dogs were searching along the tracks and a woods at 52nd and Lancaster. SEPTA and Amtrak trains through the area were delayed during the manhunt.
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