Suspect's mom feels for slain cop's family

FOR THE LAST THREE days, Annah Abdul-Ghaffar has holed herself up in the bedroom of her West Oak Lane home, curled into a fetal position, knowing she's the mother of a man the city hates.

Her only son, Rasheed Scruggs, 33, the father of four, is accused of gunning down Officer John Pawlowski after Scruggs, with a .357 Magnum in his coat, attempted to rob a hack cab driver Friday night.

Scruggs, wounded by police after Pawlowski was shot, remains hospitalized and Abdul-Ghaffar, 55, says she is torn in two.

"I love my son. I want him to get well," she said.

"He's been portrayed as the most criminal person on the planet, but that's not the case."

At the same time, she feels unbearable pain for the Pawlowski family, she said.

"I think about the officer's wife who is [five] months' pregnant and my heart goes out to her. She has to raise a baby without a father," she said.

"I don't want people to think we have no regard for other human beings. That's not how I feel. I feel awful for the family. We all do.

"I cry at night over that, too," she said. "She has to live with that the rest of her life."

Scruggs' family said they don't know what led up to the shooting death of Pawlowski, but police say Scruggs pledged to kill any cop who got in his way if the cabbie called 9-1-1.

Pawlowski, 25, was the fifth cop gunned down in the line of duty since 2006.

In all but one case, the suspects were repeat offenders with a history of armed robberies, court records show.

Scruggs was no exception.

He had been arrested nine times for crimes including robbery, car theft, weapons offenses and drugs, according to police and court records.

He was convicted of a 1997 armed robbery and sentenced to five to 10 years in prison. He was released in 2002, but he violated his parole in 2004 and was sent back to prison for an additional year.

On Friday night, Scruggs was not on probation or parole, but he faced a charge of unauthorized use of a motor vehicle. He was to appear in court on that case this week.

Scruggs' criminal record mirrors that of others accused of killing cops in recent years.

The spate of cop-killings has sparked public outcry, prompting cops and state lawmakers to lament a "revolving-door" justice system.

Too many criminals with long rap sheets are set free - free to kill, they say.

The state House Judiciary Committee had scheduled a hearing for Thursday to consider how best to protect citizens from repeat violent offenders. But committee members postponed the hearing in the wake of Pawlow-ski's killing.

Pat Boyle, 63, a retired Philadelphia police detective, had been slated to speak at the hearing.

Boyle's 21-year-old son, Officer Daniel R. Boyle, was shot and killed in 1991 while trying to apprehend a car thief.

Edward Bracey, a career criminal who had been in and out of jail, was convicted of Boyle's murder and sentenced to death in 1992.

Boyle said people who murder cops - or kill anyone for that matter - have "no conscience, no moral fiber." He said violent repeat offenders should remain in prison.

"You have to balance society's right to live peacefully against somebody's right to be paroled," Boyle said.

"I think the scales need to tip in our favor. If we have to build more prisons, let's do it."

Lawrence Sherman, director of the Jerry Lee Center of Criminology at the University of Pennsylvania, said a small percentage of criminals "become walking time bombs when they get out of prison."

Incarceration merely fuels their anger and a desire to kill, and those offenders must be kept in prison - forever, if necessary, Sherman said.

A study completed last year by Sherman and other researchers found that you can predict which offenders will get out of prison and later commit murder.

Researchers looked at 17 factors, including age, prior arrests for weapons or violent offenses and time spent in prison.

Repeat offenders who kill cops do so to feel empowered, Sherman said.

"It's a way of enhancing their own self-glorification, and for people who don't have anything else in life, this is an extremely powerful incentive," Sherman said.

Scruggs got his GED and lived with relatives in West Philadelphia and West Oak Lane, said his mom, a nurse.

One of Scruggs' five sisters, Bayyenah Abdul-Aziz, said her family is "middle-class, not poor."

"My mother never cursed around us. She always worked. She taught us respect. We're law-abiding citizens," Abdul-Aziz said.

Scruggs tried to walk a straight path after he got out of prison, his family said.

He worked in construction and as a hack cabbie, said Abdul-Aziz, while standing in her sister's West Philadelphia home.

Scruggs was not an example of a "revolving-door criminal," she said.

"My brother had money. This just doesn't make sense," she said.

At about 8 p.m. Friday, Scruggs apparently roughed up and tried to rob a cabbie near a busy SEPTA terminal at Broad Street and Olney Avenue. Scruggs allegedly told the cabbie, "If you call the cops, I'll shoot you and the cops," police said.

The cabbie called 9-1-1 and Pawlowski and two other officers arrived.

They ordered Scruggs to show his hands.

Instead, Scruggs fired a gun through his black, three-quarter length coat.

Pawlowski's vest stopped one of the bullets but another struck his upper chest and later killed him. Pawlowski fired one round before he fell to the ground.

The two other cops continued firing and struck Scruggs.

Scruggs' relatives say they were unaware that he had a gun and they could not explain why cops say they found 19 packets of crack-cocaine in his pocket.

Scruggs is in police custody at Albert Einstein Medical Center and his mom said she is not permitted to see him.

"He is not registered under his name. It's like he no longer exists," his mom said.

"Right now I pray for strength. Strength for my family and strength for the officer's family." *