News · Community · West Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Man dies after Philadelphia police shoot him in West Philadelphia standoff
A 37-year-old man died after Philadelphia police officers opened fire on him Friday evening in West Philadelphia, police announced Saturday, according to The Philadelphia Inquirer.
The Inquirer reported that a 911 call about an armed man brought officers to the scene at about 5:20 p.m. Friday. Arriving on Funston Street's 5100 block, in the Mill Creek neighborhood, officers saw the man pressing a handgun to his own head, Deputy Commissioner John Stanford told reporters Friday, the newspaper said.
According to Stanford's account as reported by the Inquirer, police sealed off the area while backup came, and officers spent about a quarter of an hour trying to talk with the man. Stanford said the man eventually aimed the gun toward officers, and seven of them, including three supervisors, fired.
CBS Philadelphia gave a similar account, reporting that police said the man had turned the gun on himself and then on officers before they shot. The station called the incident an armed confrontation.
Police said the man was hit several times, the Inquirer reported. He was brought to Penn Presbyterian Medical Center and died there, according to the newspaper.
Stanford also said officers had been called out earlier that same day over a domestic argument between the man and his partner, the Inquirer reported. Neither outlet named the man.
The officers involved are to be assigned to administrative duty during an internal police inquiry, the department said, according to the Inquirer.
The description of the shooting reported so far comes from police. Neither outlet said whether officers' body-worn cameras recorded the encounter or whether any footage would be made public, and no further information was given about the earlier domestic call.
Compiled by True News from reporting by CBS Philadelphia and The Philadelphia Inquirer. Each outlet's original story is linked below.
Sources
Get stories like this every morning
The True News daily briefing: who's funding your officials, the economy in plain numbers, missing persons and community stories. Free, one email a day, unsubscribe in one click.