A somber gathering at scene of cop-killing

UNDER a warm afternoon sun, men and women in blue lined the sidewalk along Colorado Street in silence yesterday as relatives of Officer Patrick McDonald climbed out of police vans and inched to the spot where he had been gunned down 23 hours earlier.

In the middle of the narrow street, where every hint of murder and bloodshed had been scrubbed away, they stopped, their shoulders hunched in sorrow. They looked down to the asphalt where McDonald, 30, had crumpled to the ground after Daniel Giddings, a wanted convicted felon, shot him, then stood over his wounded body and repeatedly pulled the trigger.

Commissioner Charles Ramsey trudged from the other end of the block to console the family of the fifth city officer killed in the line of duty since May 2006.

They stood in a huddle and spoke quietly. A few wiped tears from their cheeks, as neighbors, with solemn faces, peered from their second-floor windows, some cradling toddlers on their hips.

The cold-blooded killing rocked this quiet block of Colorado Street near Susquehanna Avenue, where two-story rowhouses are brightly painted in pinks, reds, greens and blues.

Most people who live here are Temple University students, blue-collar workers and retired women who've lived here for decades. One woman scrubbed her marble steps yesterday a few feet from the scene of the slaying, and said that it's been a routine chore for 10 years.

Joalicanne Funderburk, 20, a Temple junior who was home at the time of the slaying, said: "This isn't a bad block. It was just random that something horrible happened here."

She heard gunfire from her bedroom at the back of her house. Eight to 10 gunshots, then nothing. She raced to the front window and saw McDonald lying on his side near a pool of blood.

"I've been to funerals, but I've never seen a person like that," she said. "It scared me."

The slaying has fueled outrage among cops, police brass, Mayor Nutter and a city grappling with gun violence.

On Aug. 27, Giddings assaulted two Highway Patrol officers after they stopped him for traffic violations.

"After he assaulted those officers, he made a statement that he would not go back to prison and he would take down any officer that tried to take him back to prison," said Homicide Capt. James Clark. "He said he would not go alive."

On Tuesday, Giddings was riding in a 1995 Buick LeSabre driven by Shermell Howard, 27, of West Philadelphia. Giddings' relatives describe her as a friend. McDonald pulled her over on 17th near Susquehanna at 11:47 a.m. because her tail-light was out, Clark said.

McDonald got Howard's information, but Giddings gave a false name. When McDonald realized the ruse, he approached the passenger side to ask Giddings to step out of the car. Instead, Giddings hopped over to the driver's seat, jumped out of the car and took off on foot - with McDonald in close pursuit - west on Dauphin, south on Bouvier, east on Susquehanna and to Colorado Street, where the two began to brawl.

Giddings pulled out a .45-caliber semiautomatic and began firing. McDonald got off one round before he caught at least one bullet and collapsed. Giddings sprinted back to him, stood over him and shot him several more times. Clark said that investigators won't know how many times McDonald was hit until autopsy results are complete.

Giddings then grabbed a bike left on the sidewalk and pedaled north on Colorado Street, where he encountered three officers responding to McDonald's assist-officer call. While one hurried to help McDonald, Giddings hurled the bike at a second officer, knocking him off his motorcycle.

The third officer, Richard Bowes, got off his motorcycle and Giddings began firing at him. Although Bowes caught at least one bullet in the left hip, he was able to fire at least six shots, killing Giddings.

"Giddings was actually seen running down the street, firing behind him as he's running," Clark said.

Bowes remains hospitalized.

Giddings fell outside the house where Juanita Smith lives, on 17th near Dauphin. "It was crazy," she said. "There were kids in the house. It was horrible."

Although she didn't know McDonald well, she recognized him from patrolling the neighborhood. "He'd always smile and wave," she said.

Police tracked Giddings' .45-caliber handgun to a South Carolina man named Jason Mack, who bought it and several others in November 2006. Agents from the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives were questioning him yesterday.

Another semiautomatic gun traced to Mack was used in a West Philadelphia robbery, Clark said.

Mack hadn't been charged as of yesterday afternoon, but "we believe it's going to be a straw purchase," Clark said.

"Something here is extremely wrong when he can get out of prison and have access to this type of weapon and do what he did, absolutely," Clark said.

Meanwhile, police found the Buick LeSabre involved in McDonald's car stop around midnight Tuesday in a Temple University parking lot. They traced it to Shermell Howard, whom they questioned for several hours. Police do not plan to press charges against her.

Meanwhile, Commissioner Ramsey doubled up patrols, directing officers to ride two-per-cruiser and exercise special caution.

Neighbors stared intently as cruisers rolled up Colorado Street yesterday. "It was unreal," said one neighbor, a Temple student, wearing a Harvard sweatshirt.

"It made everything unreal." *