Bystander shot by police on New Year’s dies

A bystander critically injured during a police shooting on New Year's has died and authorities announced this morning that homicide detectives are investigating the officer's actions, said Deputy Commissioner Richard Ross.

Abebe Isaac, 33, was a guest as a party in East Germantown when he was shot five times by a uniformed police officer who opened fire on an armed suspect who allegedly pointed a gun at the officer and fled, police said.

Bruce Ginsburg, the attorney who represents those shot during the melee, called the officer's actions the result of "reckless policies and procedures by the city."

Ross, during a morning press conference, offered condolences to Isaac's family and announced that thorough investigations would be conducted by homicide detectives, Internal Affairs and the District Attorney's Office.

Ross would not comment on whether criminal charges against the officer were possible.

"This incident was a horrible tragedy," Ross said. "On behalf of Commissioner [Charles H.] Ramsey and the Police Department, I just want to express our sincerest condolences to the Isaac family."

Isaac, a native of Trinidad who worked as a custodian at Pennsylvania Hospital, had been shot five times in the face, forearm, back, calf and thigh. He had been in a medically induced coma at Albert Einstein Medical Center to relieve pressure on his brain. Last week, he regained consciousness and was expected to survive, his family had said.

"He's going to be okay," Nya Page, Isaac's girlfriend, said Friday after visiting him. He was unable to speak and had been placed on a ventillator to help him breathe.

Isaac was one of four people injured during the shooting, including Page's 9-year-old son, Nyger Page, who was grazed in the back by a bullet as Isaac tried to push him out of harm's way and shielded him from the bullets.

Another guest, Michael Johnson, 32, was shot in the side and has since been released from Einstein. The suspect police were chasing, Dontate Mitchell, 21, was shot in the arm.

Police responded to shots fired in the air at midnight, a tradition some observe to ring in the New Year. Authorities had warned earlier that day that shots fired in the air are dangerous, illegal and that those caught doing it would be aggressively pursued and prosecuted.

Police have been under scrutiny for their use of deadly force in recent years. Commissioner Charles H. Ramsey, who took office Monday, vowed a thorough investigation of this incident and to take a close look at the use of deadly force in the department.

In the East Germantown incident, two 14th District patrol officers heard a radio call at midnight of gunshots on Boyer Street, the block they were patrolling. They saw a man shooting a .45-caliber handgun into the air, police said.

The officers, both five-year veterans, were identified as George Marko and Joseph Kelly.

The officers ordered the man to drop the weapon, Ross said. The gunman pointed at Marko and fled into a nearby rowhouse where Isaac and the others were celebrating, police said.

The revelers were hugging, blowing party horns and counting down when bullets fired by police came through the front storm door.

Guests ran to the dining room, and some shielded their children with their bodies as others dropped to the floor. Those shot were near the front door and were attempting to flee to the second floor on a staircase near the front door.

Police said only Marko fired, shooting 11 rounds from his 9mm Glock, because he said the suspect pointed the gun at him. Ross said the officers, standing about 15 feet apart, were at different vantage points and only Marko, not Kelly, indicated in initial interviews that the gun was pointed at police.

Immediately after the shooting, police arrested a guest at the party who was was wearing clothes similar to Mitchell's.

The next day, witnesses identified Mitchell, who had been at the party earlier and ran back through the house during the shooting, as the man who illegally fired shots into the air, police said. The other man has since been released from jail.

Mitchell, a part-time mailer for Philadelphia Media Holdings (which owns The Inquirer and the Philadelphia Daily News), is charged with firearms violations and endangering the welfare of others.