An ex-Philly cop charged with murder said he pulled the trigger out of fear for his safety

A former Philadelphia police officer on trial for murder took the witness stand Monday morning, telling jurors he shot a man after a car chase in 2017 because he thought the man — who got out of the vehicle after it crashed — was reaching for a gun in a jacket pocket.

“I thought he was going to reach for a gun and shoot me,” Eric Ruch said, choking up at times as he testified. “The hand you can’t see is the hand that can hurt you.”

But prosecutors quickly sought to discredit Ruch’s account, repeatedly telling jurors during closing statements that he was a “liar” who fabricated details about the shooting of 25-year-old Dennis Plowden Jr. They also accused Ruch’s fellow officers of lying on his behalf — including during portions of the trial — to help protect a friend and colleague.

Ruch “shot a surrendering, unarmed man in the head,” Assistant District Attorney Vincent Corrigan said, later adding that Ruch’s coworkers told “lies to try to help a friend beat a murder charge.”

A jury is now tasked with deciding which version of events they believe — and whether Ruch is guilty of third-degree murder, or if his actions were legally justified. The panel of seven men and five women began deliberations Monday afternoon after receiving final instructions from Common Pleas Court Judge Barbara A. McDermott.

The case is Philadelphia’s first murder trial for an on-duty police killing in nearly 40 years. The District Attorney’s Office has charged Ruch, 34, with killing Plowden on Dec. 27, 2017, after Plowden led police on a high-speed evening chase in Olney.

» READ MORE: Fellow officers testify in case of Eric Ruch, former Philly police officer charged with murder

Investigators found no gun on Plowden after the shooting, only packets of suspected heroin in the right pocket of his jacket. The city also later agreed to pay $1.2 million to settle a wrongful-death lawsuit filed by his widow.

Ruch said Monday that he and his partner began pursuing Plowden after they noticed his car driving past theirs. The car had been highlighted in a “patrol alert” in a murder investigation, and homicide detectives had asked any officers who saw the car to stop it and have occupants brought in to be questioned. (After Plowden’s death, police said he had not been a suspect in that case.)

Early on in the pursuit, Plowden drove his car into the open door of another police cruiser, injuring an officer. He then sped away, running a red light at a busy intersection and hitting speeds that a police expert later said exceeded 75 mph.

Ruch on Monday said he and his partner lost sight of the car at one point as it drove over a hill, but stopped their unmarked vehicle a few moments later when they saw wreckage from another large car crash in front of them.

When Ruch got out of the car, he said, his partner told him, “He’s to your right.” Ruch said he then saw Plowden — whom he didn’t know — seated on the sidewalk. Ruch said he told Plowden to show his hands, but that Plowden only lifted his left hand.

Ruch said Plowden then appeared to move his right hand quickly in his jacket pocket, and Ruch fired one shot, striking Plowden in the head. Ruch said he was exposed and without cover in the middle of the street, and that he was afraid for his safety in part because he knew that another officer, John Pawlowski, was fatally shot in the same district in 2009 by a man who fired a gun through a jacket pocket.

Ruch’s attorney, David Mischak, said during his closing statement Monday that Ruch was justified in firing his weapon, calling the prosecution “an attempt to criminalize a split-second decision a police officer made under very dangerous circumstances.”

» READ MORE: Prosecution and defense square off at the trial of a former Philly cop charged with murder

Ruch “did what he thought he had to do to make it home to his family,” Mischak said, emphasizing that Ruch and his partner were in reasonable fear of danger as they followed a car connected to a homicide investigation that had already crashed once and sped through red lights and stop signs.

Corrigan, however, sought to emphasize that after the second crash, Plowden was seated on a sidewalk, had no gun, and posed no threat to Ruch or his fellow officers. Corrigan also said some evidence in the case — including the bullet’s trajectory and photos depicting the crime scene — contradicted details offered by Ruch and his colleagues.

In one example, Corrigan said the autopsy showed Ruch’s shot cut through Plowden’s raised left hand before striking the side of his forehead. Corrigan said the bullet’s path proved it was a “complete and utter lie” for Ruch to say Plowden was facing him at the time of the shooting.

He also said Ruch’s colleagues offered false accounts of where various cars were at the time of the shooting to bolster the notion that Ruch had nowhere to seek cover.

“He knows he committed murder,” Corrigan said, accusing Ruch and his fellow officers of “creating a fantasy” version of events so that Ruch could escape criminal accountability. (He was fired over the shooting in 2018.)

Ruch is among three officers to be charged with murder since District Attorney Larry Krasner took office in 2018. The other two cases remain pending.