A SEPTA police officer shot a man who was trying to flee after killing a woman in South Philly, police say
Authorities said the 41-year-old man killed a 20-year-old woman, fled from police, and was later shot at 11th and Ellsworth.
A 41-year-old man suspected of fatally shooting a woman on a South Philadelphia street Tuesday morning was later shot in the leg by a SEPTA police officer who chased after him, authorities said.
The incident began just before 8 a.m. at Broad and Ellsworth Streets, where the man shot a 20-year-old woman 10 times in what authorities later called a crime of domestic violence.
Two transit officers on duty near the Broad Street Line’s Ellsworth-Federal Station heard the shots and saw a man running toward a car, which he got into and drove away, said SEPTA spokesperson Andrew Busch. The officers pursued the man to 11th and Ellsworth Streets, where Busch said the officers saw him get out of the car while holding a handgun.
The officers, whom Busch did not identify, chased the man, who pointed his gun at them Busch said. One of the officers then fired three shots, Busch said, striking the man in his leg and shoulder.
Police said the man, whom they did not identify, was taken to Jefferson University Hospital, where he was in stable condition.
The woman who was shot, whom police also did not identify, was taken to Penn Presbyterian Medical Center, where she was pronounced dead at 8:26 a.m., police said.
The SEPTA officers were not injured, said Busch. He said the officer who fired the shot was a 27-year veteran of the department.
District Attorney Larry Krasner said that the man shot the woman as part of a domestic dispute, and that prosecutors expected to charge him with offenses including murder. Two law enforcement sources, who requested anonymity to discuss an ongoing investigation, said it appeared the man had targeted the woman not long after he was served with a protection-from-abuse order.
The shooting involving SEPTA police happened not far from Saint Maron Maronite Catholic Church, which was serving as a polling place Tuesday. Seth Bluestein, a city commissioner, said the incident did not affect voting at that location.
At Saint Maron, Larry Lindsay, the 2nd Ward, 10th Division committeeperson, said he had been chatting with a voter when someone else outside the polling station said they’d heard gunshots. He said that voters had been concerned to hear sirens and see police shutting the streets down, but that turnout had still been good. By 10 a.m., he said, his division was close to surpassing the number of in-person votes cast in May’s primary election.
Luc Lavatai, 25, said the shooting hadn’t deterred him from voting; he and his partner had bypassed the crime-scene tape down the block to get to the polling station. And although he said crime was concerning, Lavatai — who works in public safety technology — said it was overemphasized this election cycle and often presented out of context. He said the 911 calls he processes as part of his job are more of an “infrastructure failure” — a product of Americans not having anywhere else to turn for help.
The killing came as the city continues to experience near-record levels of gun violence. About an hour after the incident in South Philadelphia, police said, a 34-year-old man was critically wounded after being shot in the head on the 1700 block of Mount Vernon Street in Spring Garden.
Deputy Commissioner Frank Vanore said surveillance video showed the victim and another man in a fight before the suspect began shooting. Later Tuesday morning, Vanore said, officers at 23rd and Spring Garden Street took a 25-year-old man into custody after they saw him on the street wearing clothing that matched that of the shooter from the video. Vanore was not sure if charges had been filed against that man yet, and didn’t know if the two men knew each other before the fight.
Police also reported three double shootings between 9:45 p.m. Monday and 1 a.m. Tuesday, with the six victims ranging in age from 16 to 41.
Through Monday night, police statistics showed, 451 people had been slain in homicides in the city this year, slightly lower than last year’s pace but higher than any other year-to-date tally since at least 2007.
Staff writer Aubrey Whelan contributed to this article.