Chester police shot a man who fired at them, Delco DA says

Chester police shot a man who fired a gun at them on Wednesday evening, Delaware County officials said.

The gunfire was exchanged around 11:35 p.m. on the 100 block of West 21st Street, the Delaware County District Attorney’s Office said Thursday.

Officers were responding to an unrelated service call in the area when they heard multiple gunshots ring out, police said. As officers moved toward the source of the gunfire, they said, a man — whom authorities did not identify — fired in their direction.

Several officers returned fire, striking and injuring the man, according to Katrina Blackwell, interim commissioner of the Chester Police Department. No one else was hurt, she said.

The injured man was being treated at Christiana Hospital and is expected to be criminally charged in connection with the incident, District Attorney Jack Stollsteimer said.

Stollsteimer said the officers “justifiably returned fire” when the man shot at them. He said the incident was under investigation by his office.

Blackwell said the officers who discharged their weapons were placed on administrative leave, as is customary, pending the outcome of the county’s investigation.

Early last year, Chester police officers shot and killed 40-year-old Torraize Armstrong near 14th Street and Arbor Drive after he fired at officers during a foot chase. Police had been pursuing Armstrong’s vehicle, which they said was involved in an earlier drive-by shooting.

Police Detective Steve Byrne, a 16-year veteran of the force, was shot by Armstrong in the exchange of gunfire, but survived his injuries. Stollsteimer said at the time that the officers’ use of force in that incident was justified.