Philly Police Pelted with Objects by Onlookers During Tense Shooting and Standoff

The Associated Press
The Associated Press
Warner Todd Huston

Even as the Philadelphia police were dealing with a tense standoff with a live shooter on Wednesday, bystanders gathered and reportedly began pelting the cops with objects and verbal abuse.

One video of the incident even shows a woman shoving a police officer who was trying to get to the scene of the shooting, Fox News reported.

KYW-TV reporter Alexandria Hoff mentioned her shock and disappointment in the actions of the citizens gathered near the standoff.

“I mentioned this at 10, and since I was harassed during that live shot, I’ll mention it here, too,” Hoff said in a tweet on Wednesday. “A major moment of disappointment this evening was watching a crowd of people taunt police officers, laughing and yelling at them in the midst of the gunfire.”

In a follow-up tweet, Hoff noted that most of the people were respectful, but the behavior of the few who acted out was shocking.

Twitter feed Breaking911 posted a video of a woman shoving a police officer during the standoff.

The incident began around 4:30 p.m. on Wednesday when several officers arrived at a housing unit to serve a suspect with an arrest warrant on drug charges. Police noted that the situation turned chaotic “almost immediately,” and a man began shooting at them.

Some residents told media that the firefight sounded “like a war” had broken out.

During the eight-hour standoff, six officers were wounded, and for much of the time, two officers were stranded in the line of fire. Eventually, Philly’s SWAT team was able to retrieve the stranded officers as well as several residents of the building who were caught up in the incident.

Officers finally took a suspect into custody early on Thursday morning, nearly eight hours after a gunman first opened fire on Wednesday.

Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston.

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