Police: Standoff ‘could have been far worse’
6 Philadelphia cops injured in shootout out of the hospital
PHILADELPHIA — A gunman barricaded himself inside a Philadelphia rowhouse for 71⁄ hours, firing on police and wounding six in a standoff that trapped two officers and paralyzed a neighborhood, all while the commissioner and the shooter’s attorney tried to negotiate a surrender.
Philadelphia Police Commissioner Richard Ross expressed amazement that the standoff, which began Wednesday when officers attempted to serve a drug warrant, ended with no one dead and no life-threatening injuries, despite the gunman firing over 100 rounds. The gunman was armed with a semi-automatic rifle and a handgun.
It “could have been far worse,” Ross said Thursday outside the Philadelphia Police Department. “This was a very dynamic situation, one that I hope we never see again.”
The gunman, identified as Maurice Hill, has so far not been charged with crimes. Hill, 36, came out of the home in the wee hours of Thursday after police used tear gas. He was taken to a hospital for evaluation and then placed in custody.
Ross recounted that Hill said he had an extensive record and “did not want to deal with prison again.”
The six officers who were struck by gunfire have been released from hospitals. Two other officers who were trapped inside the house for about five hours after the shooting broke out were freed by a SWAT team well after dark fell.
Ross said the reason he made the unusual decision to be the person negotiating with Hill was because he was “so worried” about his officers stuck inside.
“I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if I was 200 feet away,” he said Thursday.
As officers flooded the scene Wednesday, the situation grew chaotic at times.
Police took to Twitter to ask media helicopters to pull back at the beginning of the standoff, saying they feared the gunman might be able to see police positions in the footage. People who had been blocked or pulled from their homes clamored for information, and at times, some onlookers shouted at or shoved officers. Many ignored orders by police to stay back, ducking under or stepping over police tape.
At one point, two men launched a drone, and when police tracked it down and confiscated it, a crowd of people already on edge shouted for the officers to pay attention to the shooter and not the drone.
A nearby day care center was locked down for hours and later evacuated, with police officers helping to carry infants, and two city buses were set up where shaken children waited for their parents to pick them up.
While standoffs with police are not uncommon, the situation in Philadelphia drew particular attention because of how long gunfire was exchanged and the fact that the commissioner made the unusual decision to speak to the shooter and that two police officers were trapped during the standoff.
Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner said Hill had an extensive criminal history, including drug, gun and robbery charges. Krasner said Hill should not have been on the streets but stopped short of saying there was any specific failure by law enforcement.
“I think it’s fair to say the criminal justice system, imperfect as it is, did not stop this terrible incident,” he told reporters at a news conference Thursday.
Pennsylvania prison officials said a man with the same name and date of birth served about 21⁄ years on drug charges and was paroled in 2006 and served more than a year for aggravated assault and before being released in 2013.
State court online court records indicate that man had multiple arrests in Philadelphia and adjacent Delaware County between 2001 and 2012, producing convictions that include perjury, fleeing and eluding, escape and weapons offenses.
U.S. Attorney William McSwain told reporters that Hill was prohibited from possessing firearms because of past convictions.
Hill’s lawyer, Shaka Johnson, said Hill called him during the standoff asking for help surrendering. Johnson then called Krasner, and the two men patched in both Hill and the police commissioner, according to Krasner.
Hill told Johnson he wanted to make it out alive to see his newborn daughter and teenage son again.
President Donald Trump weighed in on the shootout Thursday, saying the gunman “should never have been allowed to be on the streets.”