Man shot to death by police had pending charges

The man shot and killed Tuesday night when he allegedly pulled a pistol during a struggle with police was awaiting trial on drug and weapons charges, court records show.

Rahman Jenkins, 30, of the 4800 block of North Warnock Street in Logan, was the sixth person fatally wounded in a confrontation with law enforcement officers in the city this year.

Deputy Police Commissioner Richard Ross said Jenkins was stopped for driving with one headlight Tuesday night near Cambria and Rosehill Streets in Kensington.

At the time, Jenkins was armed with a 9mm Glock pistol with an extended clip, capable of holding 31 rounds, Ross said.

"They [the officers] didn't know he was armed initially, but they saw something in his pocket," Ross said.

Because of that, he said, the officers approached cautiously. Jenkins tried to flee, and one of the officers grabbed him in a bear hug.

Jenkins, however, struggled and at some point pulled the weapon out of his pocket, Ross said.

"He started to point the gun at the officer, and that's when the officer discharged," he said.

Jenkins, who was wounded in the head, was pronounced dead at the scene.

Police recovered 10 packets of cocaine and a box of ammunition, authorities said.

A man who said he witnessed the shooting and was interviewed by police said that the two officers pulled the man out of the car and that they started wrestling on the ground.

He said that Jenkins shouted, "Get off me! Get off!" and that one of the officers commanded: "Let go of the gun. Let go of the gun."

One of the officers fired after his partner said, "Shoot him," the witness said. He did not see whether the man was pointing the gun.

Court records showed that Jenkins was free on $1,200 cash bail, awaiting trial on a number of weapons and drug charges in Philadelphia stemming from an arrest in November, details of which were not available yesterday.

The records also showed that Jenkins had previous arrests for theft and drug charges dating to 1995 and that he had been sentenced to one to three years in prison in October 2000 after pleading guilty to a drug-dealing charge.

Jacqueline Jenkins, his mother, said yesterday that her son had worked in construction and was the father of a 14-year-old girl.

She said the family was seeking a lawyer to investigate his death.

The officer who fired the shot, who was not identified under Police Department policy, has been placed on administrative duty pending an investigation by the Homicide Unit and Internal Affairs, as is routine in such cases.

So far this year, five men - one of them unarmed - have been fatally wounded by police gunfire. Another man - a suspected drug dealer - was shot and killed last week by an FBI agent when he allegedly appeared to be reaching for a weapon during an undercover sting gone awry. Officials still have not disclosed whether that man was armed.

Two other gunmen killed themselves with bullets to the head after they fired at police and officers returned fire.

Last year, 20 people were killed in confrontations with police in the city, the most since 1980, and the most among the 10 largest U.S. cities.