Attack on US cop leaves 2 dead, including gunman

WASHINGTON: A shooting rampage that began with an apparently unprovoked attack on a Philadelphia policewoman left two people dead and five injured, police said Saturday. The suspected gunman was among the dead.

The shootings came in a year marked by attacks on police in racially charged incidents that followed complaints of police abuse. The shooter was identified as Nicholas Glenn, a 25-year-old local man with a long criminal record. His motives were not entirely clear, but authorities said the shooter left a rambling note – in an envelope marked ‘Doomed’ – expressing hatred for police.

“I don’t know what his ideology is, or thinking. It’s just a hatred of police officers,” Police Commissioner Richard Ross told reporters.

The race of Glenn and of the police officers involved was not immediately clear, but the neighborhood is predominantly black.

“Obviously, he was hellbent on hurting a lot of people. We still aren’t absolutely clear as to why,” Ross said.

He said there was no indication that the shooter had been radicalised – in possible contrast to a man in the same neighborhood who opened fire on a police officer early this year and said he had done so ‘in the name of Islam.’

Police said that Glenn approached a marked police car late Friday and, without speaking, fired 18 shots from close range at Sergeant Sylvia Young, 46, a 19-year veteran of the Philadelphia force. She was struck repeatedly but may have been saved by her bulletproof vest; at least two bullets struck her service weapon, disabling it, Ross said.

The assailant then fled on foot as police gave chase. He fired five times into a bar, striking a security guard in the leg, then grabbed a woman to use as a human shield. She too was shot in the leg. — AFP