Related: Officer shot during Philly holdup dies
By Stephanie Farr & Christine Olley
Philadelphia Daily News
PHILADELPHIA, Pa. — Police last night swarmed an apartment building at Broad Street and 70th Avenue, in West Oak Lane, after a cab driver reported that he had dropped off a man who resembled 21-year-old John “Jordan” Lewis, the suspect sought in the murder of Philadelphia Police Officer Chuck Cassidy.
SWAT teams, K-9 units, homicide detectives and district officers searched the building and the area around it for two hours without finding the suspect.
Police helicopters thrummed overhead, lighting the area in the eerie glare of searchlights. The parking lot of a nearby school was filled with police cruisers. Neighbors poured out of their homes to watch the drama.
But about 10 p.m., the hunt was called off. Either the suspect never had been there, or he had fled out a rear door, cops said.
The frantic scene was part of one of the most extensive manhunts in recent Philadelphia history, a hunt that now has a face - that of Lewis.
In a news conference at Police Headquarters yesterday morning, Police Commissioner Sylvester M. Johnson announced that an arrest warrant had been issued for Lewis - a husky, tattooed man with a criminal history. He declined to say how police had homed in on Lewis.
Five days have passed since Cassidy was gunned down on Halloween morning when he interrupted a robbery in progress at a Dunkin’ Donuts in West Oak Lane. Yesterday’s announcement offered the first real signs of hope to frightened citizens and weary investigators, who urged Lewis to surrender.
“There’s been enough people hurt,” Johnson said. “We’re begging him, we’re pleading for him to turn himself in.”
Lewis’ family worried for his safety yesterday and asked him to come forward on his own, despite doubts that their loved one was capable of such a crime.
“We’re praying, me and everyone in my house,” said Lewis’ grandmother Vernetha Glover Henry, who lives on Roosevelt Boulevard near 8th Street.
“We look for the Lord to take care of this,” she said.
Henry told reporters that her grandson is a high-school dropout who was searching for a job to help support his 3-month-old daughter.
Television news vans yesterday staked out the home of Lynn Dyches, Lewis’ mother, on Roosevelt Boulevard near A Street. Dyches works as a corrections officer for the Philadelphia Prison System, police said. Police called reports that Lewis had stolen a gun owned by his mother and had used it to shoot Cassidy “speculative.”
Both Dyches’ and Henry’s homes were searched Saturday night. Dyches’ home is several miles from the Dunkin’ Donuts on Broad Street near 66th Avenue, where Cassidy was murdered Wednesday morning.
Cassidy succumbed to his wound, a single gunshot to the head, the following day.
According to police and court records, Lewis, who is known to authorities as “Jordan Lewis,” has a criminal history dating to 2005 that includes theft and drug violations.
The 6-foot, 270-pound suspect has tattoos on the backs of both hands - although neither tattoo depicts a spider’s web, as initially reported by police. On the back of his left hand, Lewis is tattooed with the letters “NP” for North Philadelphia, and on the back of his right hand the letters “HP” for Hunting Park, police said.
In surveillance videos from the murder scene, the alleged gunman walks with a limp and apparently has no problem pointing a weapon at those in his way.
“If he can shoot a person in uniform . . . he’s liable to shoot anybody,” Johnson said. “This male has no hesitation shooting a person.”
Police have not recovered the murder weapon or the officer’s service revolver, which the surveillance video shows the killer taking from the sidewalk after shooting Cassidy.
“This male is armed and extremely dangerous,” Johnson said. “He has two weapons we know of.”
The around-the-clock investigation process has been “tedious” because investigators are not just collecting evidence for an arrest, but for a conviction, Johnson said. He added that law-enforcement authorities ranging from city detectives to SEPTA cops, have been working on the case.
Police spokesman Lt. Frank Vanore declined to speculate on Lewis’ whereabouts, saying that authorities “hope” he has remained in the Philadelphia area.
With a $153,000 reward on the table, Johnson said, he hopes someone will come forward to stop the pain Lewis has caused to Cassidy’s family, to police, to the larger community and to his own family.
“My condolences again go out to the Cassidy family. We talked to the Lewis family and they are also hurting,” he said. “So everyone is hurting. We need no one else to be hurt or killed here in this city of Philadelphia by this individual male or because of this individual male.”
Those with information on Lewis’ whereabouts are urged to call the police hotline: 215-683-8888.
Copyright 2007 The Philadelphia Daily News