Man shot by police in West Philly
He was holding a gun to his head, then pointed it at officers, police said.
A 37-year-old man who reportedly held a gun to his head was shot by Philadelphia police after he allegedly pointed the weapon at officers early Friday evening in the city’s Mill Creek section, police said.
Around 5:15 p.m., police received a 911 call about a man with a gun on the 5100 block of Funston Street, Deputy Commissioner John Stanford said at a news briefing at the scene.
At the same time, nearby officers were flagged down about a man with a gun, Stanford said.
When police arrived on Funston Street, they encountered the man with a handgun “holding it to his head in the middle of the street. The officers begin to to back off and secure an area around that male, while other officers are responding to this location,” Stanford said.
The man “is making comments that are consistent with suicidal type of behavior while holding that firearm,” Stanford said.
The man moved onto the porch of one house, then soon after switched to the porch of an abandoned house, Stanford said.
While the man continued to hold the gun to his head, Stanford said, officers told him to put down his weapon while ”trying to maintain a safe distance from the male."
The man then pointed his gun at police and seven officers, including three supervisors, fired their guns, striking him multiple times, Stanford said.
The report of shots fired happened just after 5:35 p.m. Stanford said police had tried to engage the man in dialogue for about 15 minutes before the shooting happened.
Stanford said the man did not discharge his gun.
Police transported the man to Penn Presbyterian Medical Center, where he was listed in critical condition, Stanford said.
The officers and supervisors will be placed on administrative duty while the shooting is under internal investigation, Stanford said.
No one else was hurt.
Stanford said police responded to a domestic incident on Thursday involving the man and a “significant other.”
“Things seemed to settle. However, they reemerged this evening. There seems to be … a domestic incident that was brewing, again involving this male, which ultimately led to the behavior that we responded to here tonight,” Stanford said.
