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'I shot out the window until the gun was empty'

Donyea Phillips told detectives he had been firing from a window at cops who had come to serve a warrant at the East Frankford home where he allegedly had been selling drugs.

Donyea Phillips told detectives he had been firing from a window at cops who had come to serve a warrant at the East Frankford home where he allegedly had been selling drugs.

He hit two of them.

"I shot out the window until the gun was empty," Phillips told police Nov. 13, shortly after allegedly wounding two undercover officers at the house on Orthodox Street near Josephine.

Yesterday, Common Pleas Court Judge Marsha Neifeld held Phillips, who turned 17 on Thursday, for trial on 13 counts of attempted murder and related offenses in the shooting, after a preliminary hearing at the Criminal Justice Center.

During the hearing, Homicide Detective James Pitts read parts of Phillips' statement to police.

"Then I heard people [outside] moaning and someone say, 'Hold on, I got you!' " Phillips said in a statement read in court yesterday under questioning by Assistant District Attorney Namratha Ravikant.

One cop was struck in the hip and the other in the thigh, police said. They are still recovering, and neither has been able to return to work yet full time.

Phillips, dressed in a purple and green plaid shirt and jeans, sat erect and looked straight ahead during the hearing, conferring with his lawyer quietly at certain points.

Under cross-examination by Phillips' attorney, Lonny Fish, Pitts was asked about Phillips' cousin Troy Zimmerman and his involvement in the shooting.

"He [Phillips] didn't say his cousin helped him shoot the officers?" Fish asked Pitts.

"No, he said he shot them," Pitts replied.

After Phillips was arrested, police recovered crack cocaine packets, money and drug paraphernalia inside the house where Phillips was squatting, officers testified yesterday.

After the hearing Fish spoke of his desire to have Phillips' case transferred to Family Court.

"I think he is much too young for us to be giving up on his life," Fish said.

He claimed his client had not known that the men who showed up at the Frankford home were cops.

Prosecutor Ravikant disagreed, citing the testimony of an officer who was a part of the raid team serving the warrant that night.

"He didn't answer when they said, 'Police!' " Ravikant said. "Instead, he chose to answer with gunshots."

Phillips is scheduled for another hearing on Dec 31.

His cousin, Zimmerman, who police also arrested in connection with the shooting, is scheduled for a hearing today. *