20 shots said to hit man slain by police

Steven Miller, the seemingly deranged man killed by police while he paced with a pistol on a South Philadelphia street corner, was hit by more than 20 of the up to 85 rounds fired at him, a person familiar with the investigation said yesterday.

Last night, Police Commissioner Sylvester M. Johnson and other department officials faced angry residents in a sweltering auditorium two blocks from where Miller was fatally wounded Sunday.

The investigation source could not say where Miller was struck, but neighborhood residents who said they witnessed the shooting have said he was wounded in the head, arms and torso as officers fired at him from three directions.

The Medical Examiner's Office has listed the cause of death as multiple gunshot wounds. The autopsy report in the case is not open for public examination and is available only to Miller's family and investigators, said Jeff Moran, a spokesman for the office.

The Police Department and the District Attorney's Office both are investigating the shooting, and representatives of both agencies said they could not comment on the autopsy report while the investigations were under way.

Last night, Johnson faced repeated questions at the community meeting at the Vare Recreation Center about what constituted excessive force, as well as a litany of complaints of rough treatment from police in other situations.

Echoing other speakers, Jamilla Lambright called the killing murder.

"We're not saying it was right for him to have a gun," she said. "We're saying it's not right the way you shot him."

"It should not be necessary to shoot anybody that many times," Lillie Lawrence said.

Johnson tried to tell the police side of the story but had to give up because of the noise and complaints from the audience.

Before he sat down, he cited a pair of shootings of children in which no witnesses came forward.

"The police shoot a man with a gun in his hand and everybody comes forward," he said, sparking an uproar.

Inspector Stephen Johnson, commander of the South Division, told the crowd that there was no precise definition of excessive force and that one purpose of the investigation was to determine whether excessive force was used.

"This is not going to be whitewashed," he said.

Johnson and other department officials have said that while they considered the officers' actions justified, they were concerned about how many rounds were fired and the way the officers apparently were positioned when they started shooting.

Two officers suffered graze wounds in the fusillade.

Johnson said some officers might be retrained as a result of the shooting.

Miller, 30, did not fire his loaded pistol during the standoff at Taney and Tasker Streets, a section of South Philadelphia between Grays Ferry and Point Breeze.

Johnson has said officers withheld fire until Miller pointed the gun at them - an action at least four neighborhood residents said they did not see.

Seven officers fired their weapons, authorities said.

Residents said most of the officers were on Tasker Street, on both sides of Taney. They said the first shot was fired by an officer 30 yards down Taney, apparently prompting officers on Tasker to open fire.

Johnson has acknowledged that some of the officers may have fired because they thought they were being shot at.

One building on the southwest corner of Taney and Tasker has 18 bullet holes in it, and a structure on the northeast corner is pocked with a half-dozen bullet holes.

Miller's younger brother Paris Young, 21, told the Philadelphia Daily News that Miller had called him about 30 minutes before the shooting and told him, "I can't take it anymore."

Neighbors said Miller had been smoking "wet" - marijuana soaked in embalming fluid - and spoke incoherently as he paced the corner with the gun, a stolen .40-caliber semiautomatic that police said was loaded with 14 rounds.

Residents said that while they had seen Miller point the gun at himself, he kept it pointed down and swung it back and forth while pacing.

Police officials have said that it is impossible for officers to read the minds of armed people and that their lives and the lives of others depend on split-second decisions.