That ‘could have been far worse’
o enses.
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 morning, saying the gunman “should never have been allowed to be on the streets.”
“He had a long and very dangerous criminal record,” he wrote in the tweet.
“Looked like he was having a good time after his capture, and after wounding so many police. Long sentence — must get much tougher on street crime!”
In the aftermath of the standoff, Philadelphia’s top federal prosecutor said it was precipitated by a disrespect for law enforcement that the district attorney is championing.
“This vile rhetoric puts our police in danger,” McSwain, the U.S. attorney, said Thursday in a news release, saying Krasner “routinely calls police and prosecutors corrupt and racist.”
Ross, the commissioner, said the gunman had at least an AR-15 military-style weapon and a handgun. On Thursday, politicians from Pennsylvania called for new gun-control measures. Democratic Mayor Jim Kenney told reporters called on state and federal lawmakers to “step up or step aside” and let cities deal with the problem themselves.
He did not give specifics on what he wanted to see done.
The standoff started around 4:30 p.m. as o cers went to a home in a north Philadelphia neighborhood of brick and stone rowhomes to serve a narcotics warrant in an operation “that went awry almost immediately,” Ross said.
Many o cers “had to escape through windows and doors to get (away) from a barrage of bullets,” Ross said.
The six officers who were struck by gunfire have been released from hospitals.
Two other o cers 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 o cers stuck inside.
“I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if I was 200 feet away,” he said.