Another Philadelphia officer mourned

Philadelphia Police Sgt. Timothy Simpson was a father of three. He loved a good prank. And he had just been recognized as an outstanding commander in a job that his friends described as his life's calling.

Yesterday, the department and the city reeled with the news of his death Monday night when his cruiser was struck, authorities said, by a speeding car driven by a career criminal fleeing police.

Simpson, 41, was the fourth officer to die in the line of duty in less than seven months, an unprecedented string that began May 3 with the murder of his partner.

A highly decorated 20-year department veteran who was responding to a robbery in Port Richmond, Simpson was killed when a 1998 Chevy Camaro driven by a 41-year-old Levittown man, William Allan Foster, careered out of control at Allegheny and Aramingo Avenues and T-boned Simpson's cruiser on its passenger side.

Police said Foster, who they said had just scored several $10 bags of heroin, boasted after his arrest that he had often eluded capture.

As flags throughout the city were lowered to half-staff for 30 days of mourning, officers at Simpson's 24th District headquarters comforted one another while black bunting was hung over the entrance yet again.

In May, fleeing bank robbers gunned down Simpson's partner, Sgt. Stephen Liczbinski, and student drawings still decorate the walls in honor of him. After Liczbinski's death, Lt. John O'Hanlon, Simpson's supervisor, asked him to take over his partner's former command of Two Squad.

"He said, 'For you, I'll do it.' I knew when he was on the street, I didn't have to worry," an emotional O'Hanlon said yesterday.

Now, he said, he was left with a question that had no easy answer: "How do you console officers who have lost their last two supervisors?"

At a news briefing at Police Headquarters in Center City, Commissioner Charles H. Ramsey said that just last week he had walked with Simpson - whose career highlights included a heroism award and four merit awards - into the 24th District station, where Simpson was honored as supervisor of the year.

Monday night, Ramsey said, he made the somber visit to Simpson's home in the Northeast to offer comfort to Simpson's widow, Catherine, and the couple's children: 11-year-old Courtney and their 15-year-old twins, son Terry and daughter Samantha.

"When you see his children like we saw them last night, it just breaks your heart," said Ramsey, who added that he had never witnessed such a toll on police in his 41 years on the job.

Mayor Nutter also visited the family, and acknowledged the deaths of six officers in the line of duty since 2006.

"We will never forget their sacrifice, and we will never yield in our efforts to make this a safer city," he said.

Police said Foster had run several red lights before broadsiding Simpson's cruiser at 10:30 p.m. with enough force to spin it into a building. Simpson was pronounced dead at 11:55 p.m. at Temple University Hospital after firefighters and paramedics worked feverishly to free him from the crumpled vehicle.

Foster, who was treated for a gash to the head and taken into custody, was charged with vehicular homicide, driving under the influence, and related offenses. A passenger in his car remained hospitalized yesterday with a hip injury. He was not charged.

Simpson was responding to a robbery at a pizza shop in the 3100 block of Aramingo Avenue. At the same time, 24th District officers spotted the Camaro speeding north on Frankford Avenue and running a red light at Clearfield Street.

It was not clear whether the officers gave chase; police regulations state that chases can be initiated when a driver is a threat to officers or others. The officers tried to pull over Foster, who appeared to be stopping but then sped east on Allegheny, said Capt. Mike Murphy of the Accident Investigation District.

At Tulip Street, Foster tapped his brakes as he went through a red light and raced toward Aramingo, Murphy said. The Camaro, possibly exceeding 50 m.p.h. as it went through yet another red light, hit Simpson's cruiser as it headed south on Aramingo, just a block from the robbery.

In a bitter wind at the crash scene yesterday afternoon, a memorial of flowers, ribbons and balloons kept growing as police and others from the community honored Simpson with a vigil.

Jay Wiley, a member of the community's town watch, told the crowd of about 100 - roughly 30 of them officers - that Simpson had saved his life six months ago by arresting a drug dealer who was threatening to kill him.

"He was a hero," Wiley said.

Turning to the officers, he added: "You are all heroes."

At 24th District headquarters, commanders recalled Simpson as a dedicated officer with a great sense of humor. Officers noted that he often had taken food to the homeless in the district.

"He was a funny guy," said Capt. Kevin Hodges, who described Simpson as a strong leader and, at the vigil later, called him "a great, great man."

Last week, Simpson joked that maybe he had made a mistake when he let Ramsey, the commissioner, inside district headquarters.

"We loved him," Hodges said, choking back tears. "For some, it was not a job or a career, it was truly a life calling."

District officers were offered grief counseling yesterday and the opportunity to work a different assignment as they coped with the district's second death this year.

In May, after a five-day manhunt, officers corralled the last of three robbers accused of gunning down Liczbinski in Port Richmond. When Eric DeShawn Floyd was apprehended in an abandoned Southwest Philadelphia rowhouse, Simpson was among the first to arrive - and he placed Liczbinski's handcuffs on the suspect.

Police kept watch on Simpson's home as relatives made funeral arrangements, set for Monday. Neighbors spoke of their fondness for the officer, recalling him as a dedicated father who took his children tubing and fishing on the Delaware River.

Christina Smeraski, 77, has lived in the neighborhood for more than 25 years. A widow for the last two years, she remembered all the times Simpson helped her husband and others.

"He was an exceptional person. He was such a good, good neighbor. He was a very good father and the best neighbor," Smeraski said. "He took care of the whole street. When there was snow, he was plowing his place and the neighbors' places."

Simpson had told her that if she needed anything, she should call him at any time.

"I'm so sorry that this happened," she said. "I can't get over it - that something like this would happen."