USA TODAY International Edition
‘ Miracle’: Philly standoff ends with no loss of life
Six officers injured in seven- hour ordeal
PHILADELPHIA – Throughout a seven- hour gun battle that turned a Philadelphia neighborhood into a war zone and left six officers injured, the goal was “preservation of life,” police commissioner Richard Ross said after a day of intense gunfire and tear gas salvos before the gunman surrendered early Thursday.
At one point, with hundreds of officers pinned down by erratic gunfire, a SWAT team rescued two officers trapped upstairs with handcuffed prisoners in the north Philadelphia home.
The police tactics worked as the shooter, with his hands up, was driven from his home after a tear gas barrage. All the injured officers were treated and released.
“It’s nothing short of a miracle that we don’t have multiple officers killed today,” Ross said.
The gunman was identified as Maurice Hill, 36, a Philadelphia man with an extensive record of gun convictions and resisting arrest, the Associated Press reported.
Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner said Hill fired more than 100 rounds. He said Hill could be charged with attempted murder and a number of other counts that could bring a life sentence if he is convicted.
He said Hill had a lengthy state and federal criminal record, including charges for gun violation, drugs, DUI, aggravated assault, resisting arrest and even “taunting a police animal.”
The suspect “should not have been on the streets,” Krasner said at a news conference Thursday.
The melee erupted as officers came to the house in a north Philadelphia neighborhood of brick and stone row homes to serve drug arrest warrants.
The standoff was especially unnerving as hundreds of officers, often pinned down by barrages of gunfire from the house, had to operate in the densely populated area. At one point, dozens of children had to be evacuated from a day care center next door.
The confrontation even included an unusual move by Ross, the police commissioner, and Krasner, the district attorney, who got on the phone to negotiate directly with the shooter.
The standoff unfolded Wednesday afternoon with an attempt to execute arrest warrants that “went awry almost immediately,” Ross said.
Many officers “had to escape through windows and doors to get ( away) from a barrage of bullets,” he said.
As gunfire erupted and officers scrambled to safety, two officers were trapped on the second floor – one officer guarding two handcuffed prisoners and the other holed up in a bathroom with a third prisoner.
At one point, one of the officers calmly radioed the chaotic scene to police surrounding the building. “We are pinned down in the second floor with three individuals handcuffed,” one officer said. “You can hear the male moving down stairs on the first floor.”
“It was a very dynamic situation,” Ross said, “one I hope we never see again.”