Philadelphia Daily News
PHILADELPHIA — At least 13 police bullets struck and killed Vincent Parsons during a police foot chase that ended at the Happy Hollow Playground last month, sources close to the investigation told the Daily News.
Parsons, who was wanted on a weapons violation and a bench warrant, was shot after firing a 9 mm Ruger handgun at police shortly after noon on April 2, police said.
Three undercover narcotics officers from the 39th Police District, in Hunting Park, returned fire, officials said.
The gunfight provoked anger among residents, who said as many as 20 to 30 shots rang out at the playground, on Wayne Avenue near Wyneva Street, in Germantown.
Parsons was hit once in the chest, once in the back, once in the right buttocks and once in the left foot, and at least nine other times in his arms, legs and buttocks, one of three sources said.
It was Good Friday and, although police said only a few children were present, witnesses said 15 to 20 children were in the playground. Schools were closed for spring break.
Police spokesman Lt. Frank Vanore said he couldn’t confirm if Parsons was shot 13 times and said he couldn’t comment on whether the number of shots was excessive.
But other police officials noted that both the police officers and Parsons had semiautomatic weapons and, once they started shooting, it might have been difficult to stop.
A police Internal Affairs investigation is under way, but the three officers who shot Parsons are back on the street, Vanore said yesterday.
The initial Internal Affairs report will have to be reviewed by the District Attorney’s Office, but so far, Internal Affairs has not interviewed the officers.
“We have to wait until they’ve been cleared - or not cleared of anything criminal [in the shooting],” Vanore said. “If they are cleared, then we can tell them that nothing they say [to Internal Affairs] can be held against them in court.”
The officers’ names have not been made public.
Vanore said the department wants “to make sure the shooting didn’t violate any [Police Department] policy.
“A shooting might not be criminal, but there’s policy,” he said.
For instance, he said there is a policy prohibiting officers from shooting at suspects from a moving vehicle.
But police do not have a “foot-pursuit” policy, which was recommended in a 2005 report by Common Pleas Judge Ellen H. Ceisler, then chief of the Police Department’s Integrity and Accountability Office.
Her report said 48 percent of police shootings between 1998 and 2003 took place during foot chases, which she said are dangerous for both civilians and police.
In the Parsons shooting, police said two of the officers initially pursued Parsons in a car; the third chased him on foot.
Robert J. Kaminski, associate professor of criminal justice at the University of South Carolina, who has studied foot pursuits by sheriff’s departments in Richland County, S.C., and in Los Angeles County, said it is second nature for a police officer to want to capture a “bad guy.”
“If someone has committed a crime, then they want them brought to justice,” Kaminski said. “It’s kind of human nature to want to pursue them.”
But the International Association of Chiefs of Police issued a “Model Policy on Foot Pursuits” in 2003 that suggests pursuit shouldn’t be automatic.
“The decision to pursue a fleeing suspect should not be regarded as a required or even prudent action in all instances,” said the IACP Law Enforcement Policy Center.
“The safety of the pursuing officer(s), fellow officers who may respond, and the public is the primary concern.”
Ronald L. Greenblatt, an attorney representing Parsons’ family, called it “reckless” of police to put “at risk the safety of numerous innocent bystanders including young children and their parents” who were in the playground that day.
“The death of Vincent Parsons is a tragedy that could have easily been avoided,” Greenblatt said.
“Witnesses who gave immediate statements to the Daily News saw the police shoot Mr. Parsons numerous times when he was unarmed and had his hands up,” Greenblatt said. “He simply was not, at the time he was killed, a threat to the police or anyone else.”
Even though Parsons fired at police, Greenblatt said, Parsons had dropped the weapon and was trying to surrender when he was killed.
“We certainly are contemplating legal action,” Greenblatt said.
Police say that it was Parsons, 26, of Belfield Avenue near Upsal Street, who put police and civilians at risk because he fired his weapon at officers.
“He shot at them. He pointed a gun at the police and fired several shots. That’s why police used deadly force,” Chief Inspector Scott Small said immediately after the shooting.
Small said that undercover officers spotted Parsons walking on Clapier Street, between Wayne and Pulaski avenues. They recognized him as wanted and tried to talk to him.
But Parsons took off running down Clapier toward Pulaski. A witness in the park said she heard gunshots before Parsons ran into the playground.
Two officers in an unmarked car pursued him down a ramp into the playground. They jumped out of the car and, with another undercover officer already on foot, ran to intercept Parsons.
On the day of the shooting, the Daily News interviewed three witnesses who said Parsons raised his hands before he was killed. Greenblatt said he has found a fourth witness who also said Parsons raised his hands.
City Councilwoman Donna Reed Miller, whose district includes the playground, has asked Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey to discuss the shooting with her.
She said she wants to find out if there are rules for police officers pursuing a suspect who runs into a public area, where civilians were present.
“It’s unfortunate what happened,” Miller said. “I hope to talk to the commissioner about it. There are just too many guns in this city.”
Earlier this week, Michael Moore, a spokesman for Miller, said the councilwoman is considering holding public hearings on police policies in general.
But Sultan Ashley-Shah, president of a citizens group, said a “closed-door, one-on-one talk with Ramsey” isn’t enough.
He said his group asked Miller, as chairwoman of Council’s public safety committee, to conduct public hearings two years ago.
“These are officers from the same 39th District unit that shot Timothy Goode,” said Ashley-Shah, president of the Citizens United, Warriors for Justice.
In January 2008, police officers shot and killed Timothy Goode, a grand-nephew of former Mayor Wilson Goode, about a block away from where Parsons died.
Goode, 24, was shot in the back. He did not have a criminal record. His mother, Pamela Goode, said she has filed a suit against the city for her son’s death.
Although Parsons was a wanted criminal, Ashley-Shah said: “The Constitution does not mandate vigilante justice. Every human being has a right and deserves their right to a day in court.”
Copyright 2010 Philadelphia Daily News