The suspect who was shot and killed by police after allegedly shooting an officer is ID’d

Police on Saturday night identified the man shot and killed by a police officer during a confrontation in a neighborhood store as Alexander Spencer, 28, of Philadelphia, who they said had fired shots and wounded an officer.

Meanwhile, the search continued for Spencer’s alleged accomplice, who, police said, fled the store with Spencer’s gun, which had dropped to the floor. Police did not provide an address or other details about Spencer.

Recently inaugurated Mayor Cherelle L. Parker said Saturday that there would be a full investigation into the case, which police said occurred about 8:45 p.m. Friday inside a neighborhood store near the intersection of North Mascher and West Cambria Streets. Parker added that she supported the police “1,001%.”

“Shots fired! Shots fired!” the officer who fired at Spencer told police dispatchers, then reported that his partner was down. The wounded officer was taken to Temple University Hospital, where he was reported in stable condition with two gunshots to the right thigh, Police Commissioner Kevin J. Bethel said.

Spencer was pronounced dead at Temple Hospital, Bethel said. The officer who shot him has been placed on administrative leave, police said.

The wounded officer has been on the force nine years; his partner, five years.

“Thank God the officer is going to survive this terrible incident,” Parker said Friday night outside the hospital.

On Saturday, the mayor, without going into detail, said she had a chance to visit the officer and his family in the hospital.

“We’re going to stop lawlessness and bring order back to our city,” Parker said during a Unity in the Community rally at FDR Park in South Philadelphia.

“We need to make sure we make it very clear that we lift up in prayer,” Parker said, for “any man or woman who wears the uniform of the Philadelphia Police Department and puts their lives on the line on a daily basis to protect and serve our city. We need to let them know that we support them, and that we have their back.”

Parker said the shooting “strengthened my resolve” to make the city safer. She said a comprehensive approach is needed that includes prevention, intervention and enforcement, and that police “have every legal and constitutional tool available.”

Roosevelt Poplar, the new president of Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 5, said in the hours after Friday night’s shooting that he was thankful that “we’re not planning a funeral” for the officer.

Last year, Philadelphia police fired their guns at people six times, killing two and wounding three, according to Police Department data. One officer survived a shot that traveled through his stomach and exited his back. The number of such cases in 2023 was down substantially from 2022, when police were involved in 15 shootings. Officers were injured in six of those cases.

Overall, Philadelphia had 410 homicides in 2023, down about 20% compared with 2022, according to police statistics. The drop mirrored a decline in violence nationally and rivaled the largest single-year declines in Philadelphia over the last 60 years. However, the number of slayings last year remained near the highest level in recent city history. Before the pandemic — when the homicide rate hit record highs — the city had recorded more than 400 homicides in a year just once in two decades.

Staff writer Anthony R. Wood contributed to this article.