Federal prosecutors open ‘separate and distinct’ case against Eric Lewis, man charged with killing Philly police officer

Federal prosecutors are opening a separate criminal case against Eric Lewis, the man charged with killing a Philadelphia police officer and seriously wounding another this month, U.S. Attorney David Metcalf said.

Metcalf, speaking Thursday at a news conference alongside Philadelphia Police Commissioner Kevin L. Bethel and other law enforcement leaders, said federal prosecutors have charged Lewis, 35, with a host of firearms crimes.

Lewis, who was previously convicted of assault and a gun crime at the state level, meets the federal definition of a felon, Metcalf said when explaining why federal prosecutors were involved.

The additional charges, he said, would complement a separate murder case that remains active with prosecutors in the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office.

“The Department of Justice has a distinct and compelling and powerful federal interest in prosecuting felons who use firearms to rob, shoot, and kill police officers,” said Metcalf, whose office covers the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

The Justice Department’s involvement marks the latest development in a crime that has stunned the city’s law enforcement community and exacerbated tensions between police and District Attorney Larry Krasner, who three days after the shooting accused officers of procedural errors and misbehavior that was “arguably criminal” in a prior murder case involving Lewis, leading to his acquittal.

Bethel, addressing those remarks for the first time Thursday, called the timing of the district attorney’s comments “unacceptable.”

Lewis remains in custody without bail after fatally shooting Officer Shane Seiber and injuring his partner, Officer Hector Rodriguez III, on a West Philadelphia porch early in the morning Oct. 10.

Police said Lewis opened fire on Seiber and Rodriguez in an ambush-style attack after they responded to the neighborhood for a 911 call about a person with a gun. Lewis then retreated into the shadowy alley behind the property, triggering a tense standoff with a swarm of responding officers before surrendering to a SWAT unit.

He committed a series of gun crimes during those moments, Metcalf said when announcing the charges.

Lewis is charged with using a firearm in relation to a crime, illegally possessing a firearm, possessing a stolen firearm and ammunition, theft of a firearm, and interference with interstate commerce by robbery, he said. The maximum penalty for those crimes is life in person, the same maximum as with the state charges.

Immediately after opening fire, federal prosecutors said, Lewis robbed Rodriguez of his Glock Model 17 service weapon and then used an illegal 9mm semi-automatic “ghost gun” to continue firing. Lewis also wielded a sawed-off 12-gauge shotgun during the encounter, he said.

Federal prosecutors began communicating with Philadelphia police about the prospect of opening their own case against Lewis shortly after Seiber’s death, according to Metcalf, who attended the slain officer’s Center City funeral on Tuesday.

While Metcalf’s announcement’s Thursday centered on the federal case, reporters questioned the federal attorney and Bethel, the commissioner, about Krasner’s comments on the police department’s alleged misconduct in Lewis’ prior case.

Bethel, who for more than a week maintained that his focus was with the officers’ families, said the district attorney’s behavior following Seiber’s death as unprecedented in his four decades in law enforcement.

“I have never seen that in my entire career” the commissioner said when asked about the timing of Krasner’s remarks. “When the family was suffering, when the city was suffering … the community was suffering, my officers were suffering, and you stand up and you talk about something that is unnecessary.”

Bethel said he encouraged anyone who supported Krasner’s behavior to first “walk into the homes” of the grieving families of the fallen and injured officers.

Krasner declined when asked to immediately comment on Bethel’s remarks, saying he had yet to hear them.

The allegations, outlined by Krasner in a YouTube video address, stem from Lewis’ 2023 acquittal by a Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas judge after a bench trial in which he had been accused of fatally shooting a 32-year-old man during a 2019 road-rage incident in West Philadelphia.

Following Lewis’ release, the judge penned a rare letter to the police department’s Internal Affairs Bureau outlining issues with the case he viewed as severe, including missteps on the part of a homicide detective and the fabrication of an alternative suspect by a police officer who was dating Lewis’ sister at the time.

Of that officer’s conduct, Bethel had this to say Thursday: “I fired him last year.”

Metcalf, asked to weight in on the controversy, largely demurred. He said the federal case was “completely separate and distinct” from Krasner’s ongoing murder prosecution and that his office had notified the district attorney’s office before bringing the charges.

This would not be the first time federal authorities have opened cases simultaneously with state-level prosecutors in such cases, he said, adding that his prosecutors would remain in “close contact” with Krasner’s office as the cases progress.

“The objective here is not to duplicate a state criminal proceeding,” he said. “The idea is to complement it.”