Slain Philadelphia police Officer Shane Seiber will be laid to rest today
Seiber, 40, was killed Oct. 10 as he responded to a report of a person with a gun in West Philadelphia.
Philadelphia Police Officer Shane Seiber, who was fatally shot earlier this month in West Philadelphia, will be laid to rest Tuesday following a funeral at the Cathedral Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul in Center City.
Seiber, 40, was killed Oct. 10, on a front porch after what police have described as an attack that also left Seiber’s partner, Officer Hector Rodriguez III, seriously wounded. Seiber’s death shook the city’s law enforcement community, and left behind a wife and two young children.
Mourners can pay their respects beginning at 8:15 a.m. at the cathedral, and a funeral liturgy will begin at noon. Seiber’s burial will be private, according to his obituary. Mayor Cherelle L. Parker has ordered flags across Philadelphia to fly at half-staff until Seiber is interred Tuesday.
Several roads will be closed before and during the services.
Born in Trenton, Seiber grew up in Levittown and Langhorne and later moved to Northeast Philadelphia, according to his obituary. He lived in Bensalem with his wife, Lisa, and their 7-year-old son and 3-year-old daughter.
Seiber enlisted in the U.S. Air Force in 2006 and served with the 436th Security Forces at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware, completing two tours in Iraq. Then, in 2016, he joined the Philadelphia Police Department. He graduated from its police academy the next year with a promise to “do my best to make y’all proud,” which he posted publicly on his Facebook page.
Seiber worked in the 22nd and 19th police districts. But away from the job, Seiber played video games, especially World of Warcraft, exercised, and practiced jiujitsu, his family said.
He had been married to his wife for 11 years. In that same 2017 Facebook post, Seiber credited her with endless patience for his “constant shenanigans, pranks, and general goofing around.” Friends knew him as “Colgate,” a nickname earned by a smile that rarely left his face, according to his obituary.
Seiber was the fourth Philadelphia police officer to die in the line of duty in the last three years. He was shot shortly before 1 a.m. on the front porch of a home on the 100 block of North 52nd Street, where he and Rodriguez, his partner, had responded to a report of a person with a gun.
Authorities have arrested and charged Eric Lewis, 35, with Seiber’s killing and a slew of related crimes.
Police said that as Seiber knocked on the front door, Lewis came up behind the officers and demanded to know why they were on his porch. After a brief struggle, police said, Lewis shot both officers and kept firing after they fell. Seiber was shot three times and died hours later at Penn Presbyterian Medical Center. Rodriguez, 33, was shot 12 times and survived.
Police said Lewis quickly retreated to a dark alley behind his home and fired at officers who rushed to the scene. No one else was hit. But the standoff lasted nearly an hour and ended only when SWAT snipers spotted Lewis hiding in a tree, about two stories off the ground.
He fell from the tree and was arrested.
According to an arrest report, Lewis later told officers he shot them because they had put their hands on him. “I did what I did because they did what they did,” he said, according to the report.
In addition to murder, Lewis is also charged with 10 counts of attempted murder, disarming a law enforcement officer, carrying a firearm without a license, and related offenses.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
