Gunman killed by Philadelphia police shot guard in mid-December

The man killed in a New Year's Eve shoot-out with Philadelphia police appears to be the same man who critically wounded a private security guard two weeks earlier.

The man who wounded two patrolmen about 8 p.m. Friday in the Cobbs Creek section and before he was killed by return fire has been identified as Darryl Moore, 52, of the 4100 block of Poplar Street in West Philadelphia.

Within hours of the shootings,  detectives showed eight photographs, including Moore's to security guard Howard Rubin, who said in an interview Sunday he positively identified the man in the New Year's Eve shooting as the gunman who shot him in the back of the neck on Dec. 15.

"His face will be in the back of my mind for the rest of my life," Rubin said. "He almost left me paralyzed."

A police source confirmed that Rubin had made what investigator consider to be a positive identification of Moore. who, court records show, has served prison terms for violent offenses, including aggravated assault and robbery.

Rubin, 42, of Northeast Philadelphia, was at the Sunoco A-Plus mini-mart near 37th Street and Girard Avenue. just blocks from Moore's home,  at 11:14 p.m. Dec. 15 when he got into an argument with a customer whose green minivan was parked outside and overheating.

"This guy comes running in and grabs antifreeze without paying," said Rubin, a school district police officer at the Multicultural Academy Charter School in North Philadelphia. He moonlights as a security guard and has a website - thehiphopcop.net - advertising his services as a bodyguard for music artists.

On Dec. 15, Rubin was wearing his dark, police-style uniform, complete with insignia identifying him as an employee of the Pennsylvania Public Safety Task Force, a private company. He was just a customer in the mini-mart that night, he said, but he shouted at the man that he needed to pay.

"The guy comes back in and he pays. I'm having small talk with him. He said he wanted to make sure his engine didn't crack," said Rubin, who was on a dinner break from his assignment that night guarding a nearby construction site.

It seemed there would be no further problems, Rubin said, but then the man became enraged because a hot-food display case was empty and employees had nothing hot to offer him.

When the man started yelling, Rubin, who was unarmed because his 9mm Glock pistol was in his car, said, "Just leave."

The man did, but he returned 15 minutes later brandishing a handgun.

"I tried to run out of the place," Rubin said. "He caught me at the door and shot me in the neck."

The shot knocked the 5-foot, 140-pound Rubin to the floor. He lost consciousness for a moment. When he came to, the gunman was standing over him. He grabbed Rubin's cell phone and the retractable police baton that Rubin carried on his belt.

"He's robbing me while I'm on the ground bleeding. He demanded my gun. I said I didn't have it. He said, 'If you get up, I'll shoot you again.' Then he sped away."

Emergency surgery at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania removed slug fragments lodged in Rubin's cervical vertebrae. Three days later, Rubin was released from the hospital, lucky to be walking.

"Every day I was hoping police would find him. It bothered me every day that this scum could just walk the streets knowing that he hurt somebody," Rubin said.

Edited surveillance video from the mini-mart was posted on the Police Department website. It does not show the shooting but does show a man with a mustache, wearing light-colored pants, a dark hooded jacket, and a brimmed cap. The video produced no leads.

Police said a green minivan like the one driven by the mini-mart shooter ran a red light at 57th and Spruce Streets in West Philadelphia Friday. Officers Adam O'Donnell and Ivan Centeno tried to pull the vehicle over, but the driver refused to stop.

Police say the driver led them on a chase before coming to stop near Walnut and South Frazier Streets.

Police said that O'Donnell and Centeno approached the vehicle from the driver and passenger sides and that the driver began shooting. O'Donnell was hit in the stomach but escaped serious injury because of his bulletproof vest. Centeno was grazed by gunfire and also escaped serious injury. The officers returned fire and mortally wounded the shooter, now identified as Moore.

Rubin entered the new year wearing a cervical collar, taking pain medication, but feeling grateful that "this guy, who had no regard for any type of authority," is off the street.

"I would like to thank the officers, absolutely, for catching this idiot, and for doing their jobs," he said. "And thank God they didn't lose their lives."