Man shot dead by Philly cop was from Delco

A man shot dead by a police officer after allegedly threatening to blow out her brains following a hit-and-run incident in North Philadelphia was identified today as 26-year-old Thomas Hennelly of Havertown.

Internal Affairs is investigating the shooting that left Hennelly dead, but Police Commissioner Charles H. Ramsey has said it appeared to be justified.

The chain of events leading up to the fatal encounter began about 10:30 a.m. Thursday, when a narcotics cop in a marked car on Broad Street near Oxford saw the driver of a blue pickup truck jump a curb, travel into a parking lot and strike several parked cars, said Lt. Ray Evers, police spokesman.

"It was deliberate what he was doing," Evers said. "It definitely wasn't an accident."

As the officer drove toward the pickup, he saw the driver strike a Temple University student, police said. When the officer got out of his car and tried to approach the pickup, the driver hit the cop's cruiser. The officer then fired two to three shots, hitting the truck but missing the driver, Evers said.

The driver fled to 20th Street near Master, where he abandoned his truck on the sidewalk. He then ran through two vacant lots to the rear of a beer distributor, where he was cornered by a female officer.

The man allegedly reached for an object and threatened the officer by yelling, "Step back, or I'm going to blow your brains out!" Evers said.

Although she never saw a gun, the cop took it as a "definite threat" and fired several times at the man, hitting him twice - once in the upper left shoulder and once in the leg, Evers said.

Hennelly, of the 800 block of Merion Avenue, was taken to Hahnemann University Hospital, where he was pronounced dead shortly after 11 a.m.

The Temple student was taken to Temple University Hospital and treated for an ankle injury and scrapes, police said.

No gun was found on Hennelly, but police searched the vacant lots he ran through to see if he tossed it. Police said they found a hypodermic needle on the front seat of the his truck.