Botched arrest by Sheriff’s Office for probation violation preceded fatal North Philly crash

Deputies from the Philadelphia Sheriff’s Office appear to have made serious tactical errors while attempting to apprehend a wanted man at his workplace in North Philadelphia on Monday morning, which enabled him to speed away in his car, according to experts in fugitive apprehension.

Moments later, Joseph Cini, while fleeing the deputies in his Nissan Maxima, plowed into a Jeep Patriot at Ninth Street and Girard Avenue, police say, killing an Uber passenger and seriously injuring her driver.

Cini, 35, ran from the scene but turned himself in to police Tuesday night. He is facing a slew of new charges, including homicide by vehicle.

Sheriff Rochelle Bilal has declined to answer any questions about the botched arrest. She released a short statement offering her office’s condolences to the family of Angela Cooper, the 63-year-old woman who was killed.

The Inquirer, however, was able to partially reconstruct what happened based on statements the deputies have provided to Philadelphia police.

The six-person operation by the sheriff’s office turned deadly when deputies from its warrant unit approached Cini, who was wanted for a probation violation, while he was still behind the wheel — rather than waiting until he got out of his vehicle.

Cini then backed up and, because the deputies had failed to box him in, started barreling down Girard Avenue. One member of the warrant unit, in fact, told police that he moved his unmarked vehicle to make way for the suspect’s vehicle to get by.

Four experts consulted by The Inquirer said the deputies’ statements could serve as a road map of what not to do during an apprehension. Such high-risk tactics, according to those experts, put the deputies and the public in more danger than was necessary.

“A vehicle is like a gun, almost. It can be a two-ton weapon.” said Craig Caine, a retired inspector with the U.S. Marshals Service. “And it proved to be true in this case.”

Before sunrise Monday morning, a team of four deputies and two sergeants from the sheriff’s warrant unit laid an ambush for Cini. They had received a tip he was working at a low-slung plumbing business next to a three-way intersection on the 900 block of Watts Street, just south of Girard.

After surveilling the business, the team learned that Cini was set to arrive around 7 a.m. A sheriff’s sergeant and a deputy were outside the plumbing business, waiting to get a positive ID as others moved to block Cini’s escape paths, according to statements they later provided to police.

But when the deputies received confirmation that Cini was approaching the business, they sprang the trap before he stepped out of the car.

One deputy told police she activated the emergency lights on her car, then she and another deputy approached Cini and told him to exit his vehicle.

A sheriff’s sergeant on the team provided a similar account, telling police that the warrant unit closed in on Cini while he was still in the Maxima.

Instead of getting out of the car, Cini threw it in reverse and headed north on Watts.

As Cini backed up, a sheriff’s sergeant quickly moved his own vehicle onto Cambridge, a cross street, to avoid a collision with Cini on Watts, he later told police.

The warrant unit regrouped and began heading after Cini, but he crashed into the Jeep only five blocks away, according to the deputies.

Stephen Thompson, 51, a pastor in Kensington who was driving the Jeep for Uber, was injured in the crash and is being treated at Temple University Hospital.

The impact pinned Cooper, a Peco employee who did homeless outreach, in the back seat of the Jeep. A deputy checked her pulse and found none. She was pronounced dead at 7:24 a.m.

Days later, debris from the crash remained in the middle of Girard Avenue.

At a news conference Thursday, District Attorney Larry Krasner described Cooper as a “remarkable person” who was active with her church and “was always sacrificing for others.”

“We want the families and surviving victim to know our office will do everything we can to get justice and hold this defendant properly accountable for this terrible act,” Krasner said.

Experts on fugitive tracking and apprehension say the crash was likely preventable.

Robert Almonte, who served as U.S. marshal for the Western District of Texas during President Obama’s administration, said it is unusual for a warrant unit to confront a wanted man while he is in a car if the officers had information on where he is going to be.

“I would have waited for him to go into work and grab him there,” Almonte said. “Or, if the boss didn’t want that to happen, I’d go to Plan B: Let him walk toward the front door and grab him. But don’t let him get back to the vehicle.”

Caine, who worked on a fugitive task force in New York and New Jersey, agreed. A foot pursuit, he said, is much less dangerous than a car chase.

“Wait for him inside. Don’t have any suspicious vehicles within eyesight,” Caine said, speaking generally about best practices. “Take him at the door, or wait until he gets deeper into the building. Usually we were at the door. He comes in, boom, he’s on the ground, in handcuffs, and we take him away, no danger.”

If you have to confront a fugitive in a car, Caine said, make sure he has nowhere to go, if at all possible.

“Surround the car. Box him in nice and tight,” he said.

Krasner said Thursday that Cini may have somehow “figured out” he was about to be arrested, and then decided to flee. The deputies’ accounts to police, however, make no mention of that.

Regardless, Chris Burbank, an adviser to the Center for Policing Equity and the former police chief in Salt Lake City, said the operation was a failure that put lives at risk.

“It’s Law Enforcement Tactics 101,” Burbank said. “There is absolutely no reason to do anything while he’s mobile. This was unnecessary.”

Since Monday, Philadelphia police and the sheriff’s office have provided only vague explanations of why sheriff’s deputies were attempting to arrest Cini in the first place.

Cini has a lengthy criminal history, racking up at least 24 priors in Pennsylvania and New Jersey between 2001 and 2022, including for theft, robbery, assault, and domestic abuse, according to police records.

The sheriff’s office statement on Monday said only that “deputies were attempting to serve a lawful warrant.” A police department news release on Monday described it as a “warrant for domestic assault,” leaving the impression Cini was wanted for a crime not yet prosecuted.

But two members of the warrant unit told police that they were planning to arrest Cini for a probation violation.

The Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office confirmed Thursday that Cini was being sought in connection with a 2018 case in which he had already been sentenced to jail time and probation. Assistant District Attorney Bob Wainwright said Cini was “on probation at the time for a domestic violence strangulation case” and had open warrants associated with that case.

Philadelphia law enforcement agencies have been under increased scrutiny about how they handle domestic abuse cases following the October killing of Kada Scott, allegedly by a former romantic partner.

At a City Council hearing this month, Bilal said her office was prioritizing cases linked to domestic violence.

“We are no longer operating as a passive service agency,” she said. “We are now an active coordinator and a public safety partner in the city’s domestic violence response network.”

On Thursday, however, Bilal declined to discuss what went wrong in the Cini case.

“At this time, we cannot comment on the initial findings as the matter remains under active investigation,” Teresa Lundy, a department spokesperson, said in an email.

“Our office is conducting its own review,” Lundy said, “and will await the conclusion of the Philadelphia Police Department’s investigation before providing any further response.”