Two Philadelphia police officers and four civilians were shot on September 16 by a lone gunman in a chaotic and bloody night for law enforcement.
You can watch the coverage from the NBC affiliate in Philadelphia here.
The gunman was identified by police as Nicholas Glenn, 25, a career criminal they say was driven by hatred. You can learn more about Glenn here.
According to NBC Philadelphia, Commissioner Ross said police found a letter from the gunman that “contained ramblings about his hatred for police officers and named a specific parole officer as a target.”
NBC Philadelphia said one of the officers shot, a female sergeant, Sylvia Young, was shot while sitting in her squad car. Fox 29 described the scene as “chaotic” and said one officer shot, Eddie Miller, was a University of Pennsylvania officer who is a retired Philadelphia officer. A civilian shot by the gunman has died, Philly.com said.
A video journalist with ABC 6 said the female officer was “ambushed” and shared video of bullet holes in her squad.
Bullet holes through @PhillyPolice sgt. Window as he was ambushed. @6abc
Listen to police dispatch audio here:
Police radio of the moments after Sgt. Young was shot and as officers cornered the gunman. t.co/KgVuE4YU4d
In a news conference, police said the shootings unfolded this way:
Police Chief Richard Ross Jr. said the gunman walked up to the female sergeant’s car and “just fired. He didn’t say anything.” She heard about 15 shots, police said in the news conference, and she was struck at least eight times. “She is very, very fortunate. Unfortunately, there are some civilians not in good shape at all. One or two are in the ER right now,” police said. Police said they believe the situation is isolated to the one gunman.
The gunman first shot into a bar; the bar’s door was open. He struck a security guard in the left leg and then, as officers were approaching, he grabbed a female and used her as a shield, and then shot that woman in the leg. Then, he continued to run down the street. He then approached a car in the area “having nothing to do with him,” and the gunman shot multiple times into the car, critically injuring male and female civilians in the chest, and then continued to an alley. There, a gun battle ignited between the gunman and police.
Watch:
The first person to enter the alley was an officer from the University of Pennsylvania. The gunman was then shot by police and was dead at the scene. Police said they had a lot of unanswered questions in what they termed a “completely bizarre situation.”
Police said four civilians and two police officers were shot overall – seven people if you count the gunman. “We have no idea what started this, what motivated this individual,” police said at the news conference, adding that they had not yet identified the suspect in the early morning hours of September 17.
One suspect was reportedly killed, although later reports said information about the suspect’s condition was contradictory. Police had launched a multi-block manhunt for a possible second gunman in a multiple shooting incident that also saw a civilian injured. But they now say there was only the single gunman, who is deceased.
The New York Daily News said officers had responded to “torrents” of gunfire, and gunfire then broke out on another block nearby.
The same evening, a few hours earlier, two police officers were shot while responding to a 911 call in Fort Worth, Texas. Their conditions were not yet clear, although some reports said one of those officers was in critical condition. In the Texas incident, the suspect was holed up in a shed but is now dead, and allegedly shot at officers after they responded to a 911 suicide call and found a dead body in the house. Shortly before midnight, police there said one officer was still in surgery.
In Philadelphia, news reports said the officers were both in stable condition, so it looked like all four police officers shot in American cities on September 16 might survive.
In Philadelphia, ABC News said there was a “confrontation” that led to the officers being shot. The shootings occurred shortly after 11 p.m.
