Phila. officers cleared in two 2007 fatal shootings
Two Philadelphia police officers have been cleared of any wrongdoing in the shooting deaths of two civilians in separate incidents last year.
Two Philadelphia police officers have been cleared of any wrongdoing in the shooting deaths of two civilians in separate incidents last year.
District Attorney Lynne Abraham this morning announced the findings of investigations into the Jan. 1, 2007 death of Bryan Jones, 20, in a New Year's Eve gunfight between police and occupants of two houses in the 1700 block of North 59th Street in West Philadelphia; and the July 29, 2007 killing of Julio Sylvester Rivera, 20, in a shooting in the 3100 block of North Fifth Street in North Philadelphia.
Abraham said the extensive investigation of the Jones death showed that he was among a group of young men who had "terrorized the Overbrook Park neighborhood."
Abraham said witnesses said Jones was inside two houses in the block that night, one of a group of up to 15 young men firing weapons inside and outside the house.
Jones was not armed when he was shot once and killed by Officer Stephen Szczepkowski. But ballistics tests showed gunpowder in the waistband of his underpants, which Abraham said showed he had tucked a recently fired gun into his waist.
Abraham said a .38 caliber revolver witnesses inside the two houses told investigators Jones regularly carried was found with other weapons on the roof of adjacent houses in the block.
Police said they were fired on from the conjoined roofs of the rowhouses when they responded to neighbor complaints about shooting going on in the block.
Jones was fleeing when he was confronted by Szczepkowski and, Abraham said, reached for his waistband.
In the Rivera shooting, Abraham said Officer Michael Ferrari was justified in firing on Rivera after the man - who was arguing with his girlfriend - shot himself in the chest and then crawled behind a car and refused orders to drop the weapon.
