By Julie Shaw
The Philadelphia Daily News
Read the P1 News Report: Ruling in cop shooting sparks outrage
PHILADELPHIA — A judge Thursday set new bail terms for a 17-year-old youth accused of seriously wounding a Philadelphia Housing Authority police officer with an assault rifle in Germantown last month.
The ruling satisfied the officer, Craig Kelley, 49, who was outraged earlier this week by a different judge’s decision.
Kelley was shot in his left torso about 10:15 p.m. Feb. 17 in a security booth in the Queen Lane Apartments high-rise on Queen Lane near Pulaski Avenue.
On Thursday, Common Pleas Judge Benjamin Lerner set bail at $750,000 for Zahir Boddy-Johnson, of Diamond Street near 23rd, North Philadelphia, with the condition that if he posts the required 10 percent, he will only be released if he is placed under electronically monitored house arrest.
Kelley was outraged Monday after Municipal Judge Deborah Shelton Griffin dismissed an attempted-murder charge against Boddy-Johnson at his preliminary hearing, then reduced his bail from $5 million to $75,000.
Griffin found that Boddy-Johnson had intended to rob the officer, but did not intend to kill him. She reasoned that he shot Kelley in reaction to Kelley’s closing the booth’s door and not staying still as ordered.
Shortly after Griffin’s decision, the District Attorney’s Office refiled the attempted-murder charge and filed a petition to reinstate the original bail.
Lerner will consider the commonwealth’s motion to rearrest Boddy-Johnson on the attempted-murder charge on April 14.
In court yesterday, Assistant District Attorney Erica Wilson asked Lerner to hold Boddy-Johnson without bail. She told Lerner that after Boddy-Johnson shot Kelley, he fired “two more times as if trying to finish Officer Kelley.”
Defense attorney Michael Coard argued for a more reasonable bail in line with the charges on which his client has been held for trial - aggravated assault and weapons offenses. He added that his client is not a flight risk.
PHA Police Chief Richard Zappile, who attended the hearing, said outside court that he believes Boddy-Johnson has relatives who live in the Queen Lane Apartments and may have been visiting them at the time.
Homicide Lt. Philip Riehl said yesterday that “if it wasn’t for his [Kelley’s] vest, we don’t know whether or not he would have survived.”
The rifle bullet, Riehl said, went through the vest, spun and tumbled, then entered Kelley’s lower left torso.
Boddy-Johnson allegedly confessed to the shooting in a police statement, read in court Monday. He said he used an SKS rifle, which he bought on the street.
Copyright 2008 The Philadelphia Daily News