A 30-year-old West Philly man charged with shooting a police officer in Overbrook. Officer is stable and ‘up and talking.’

A 30-year-old man from West Philadelphia has been charged with shooting and critically wounding a Philadelphia police officer during a fight Wednesday afternoon outside Overbrook High School.

Dachan Seay was taken into custody shortly after he showed up at a fight among students and, as police attempted to break it up, fired his Ruger-5.7 pistol, Police Commissioner Kevin Bethel said Thursday.

The bullet, a rifle round, ricocheted off the ground or a nearby fire hydrant and into the abdomen of a 26-year-old police officer, leaving him critically wounded, Bethel said. The officer, who has been on the force for about a year, remained hospitalized Thursday morning in stable condition. Police did not identify him.

“He is on the road to recovery,” Bethel said. “He is already up talking.”

Seay was charged with aggravated assault on a law enforcement officer, illegal gun possession, recklessly endangering another person, and multiple other crimes, Bethel said.

The incident erupted around 2:45 p.m. across the street from Overbrook High, near 59th and Oxford Streets. Shortly after classes were dismissed, multiple fights broke out, and officers stationed at the school called for backup, police said.

Meanwhile, Bethel said, someone amid the melee called Seay, who rushed to the school with a gun. Bethel said it was not clear who called Seay or what his relationship was to any students involved in the fight.

But as officers attempted to separate a group of young people clashing in the street, the gun fired, he said. He called Seay “a coward” who, as an adult, is “supposed to come in and de-escalate, not escalate.”

Bethel said Seay “didn’t aim at the officer,” but that was beside the point.

“You brought a gun to a fight. What was your expectation? So don’t be surprised when the gun goes off,” he said. “I can’t say what your intent was, but an apology is not what I’m looking for today.”

Bethel thanked members of the public for their prayers for the officer, and underscored the challenges police at the scene on Wednesday faced in de-escalating the fights, identifying and arresting Seay, and then trying to save the life of their colleague.

“Look at who we are. Look at the service we give to the city,” he said.

The commissioner also said that additional officers “with a different posture” were being stationed outside Overbrook High on Thursday, and that school administrators were working to identify the students involved with Wednesday’s fights.

“You see a number of kids on the video out there fighting, and I expect that they’re being held accountable,” he said.