Philly landlord-tenant officer discharges firearm during eviction for the second time in months

A Philadelphia deputy landlord-tenant officer on Wednesday fired his gun at a tenant’s dog while trying to enforce an eviction in North Philadelphia, but the animal was not injured.

Around 10:45 a.m., police said a dog rushed at the officer after he entered a private residence to change the locks on the 5500 block of North American Street. The officer fired one shot, which missed the dog and caused it to run away.

The incident nonetheless marks the second time in recent months a deputy landlord-tenant officer discharged a firearm while carrying out court-ordered eviction business. In March, a deputy landlord-tenant officer shot 35-year-old Angel Davis in the head during an attempted lockout in North Philadelphia, an event that drew unprecedented scrutiny of the city’s unusual and perplexing system for outsourcing eviction matters to a private contractor.

And Wednesday’s shooting highlighted just how perplexing that system is.

The confusion started with a false report on social media that the tenant’s dog had been shot and killed. A Philadelphia Police Department spokesperson refuted that quickly and said that an “eviction officer” had only shot at the dog.

But there is no such such thing as an “eviction officer” in Philadelphia.

Unlike other municipalities, the courts allow a private attorney known as the landlord-tenant officer and their deputies to deliver writs and enforce lockouts on behalf of the court, in exchange for collecting millions in fees from landlords. Philadelphia sheriff’s deputies can also perform evictions, but due to the higher rates the office charges, landlords more often hire the outsourced deputy landlord-tenant officers.

These officers are not sworn law enforcement personnel — though perhaps understandably, they’re confused for sheriff’s deputies, even by the police.

So who shot at the dog, again?

The Police Department later said that the “eviction officer” had initially been listed in incident paperwork as a sheriff’s deputy. The Sheriff’s Office refuted that claim and said the shooter was the landlord-tenant officer. And the landlord-tenant officer — a government appointee with no tradition of speaking with the media — did not return repeated calls for comment.

Marisa Shuter — an attorney who was appointed the landlord-tenant officer in 2017 through a noncompetitive and nonpublic process — has not spoken publicly since the March shooting.

Police spokesperson Sgt. Eric Gripp eventually confirmed it was in fact a landlord-tenant officer and said police officers would be told to avoid misidentifying them in future paperwork.

To critics, the lack of easy answers when it comes to the Landlord-Tenant Office speaks to the need for reform.

“This further highlights why changes need to be made to this office, and the need for greater transparency,” said Bethany R. Nikitenko, an attorney who is representing Davis.

The March shooting was the first one involving a deputized eviction officer in recent memory. Davis was hospitalized in critical condition and, while police later attempted to charge her with aggravated assault, her case drew protest from tenants-rights advocates and calls to action from elected officials.

State lawmakers introduced legislation seeking to ban private firms from enforcing evictions in Philadelphia. City Council also held a hearing this month to examine other potential reforms to the unusual system, and legislators say they are now exploring how to codify a contract for the office. Both Shuter and court officials declined to attend the hearing.

Shuter told The Inquirer in 2020 there were seven to eight contracted deputies. But unlike sworn law officers, the names of these deputies are not made public, even in the event of a shooting. Law enforcement agencies typically name officers who use their service weapons on duty.

Staff researcher Ryan W. Briggs contributed to this article.