PHILADELPHIA – A man who allegedly shot one Philadelphia police officer earlier this month, two others this morning and then kept cops at bay for hours has apparently shot himself accidentally, police say.
Fortunately, neither of the SWAT officers struck during Wednesday's early-morning raid were injured because bullet-resistant gear stopped the bullets.
SWAT held an arrest warrant for 20-year-old Nasuil Martinez, who was wanted in connection with the Dec. 9 shooting of another officer. Wednesday's incident began at 3:30 a.m., when a call came in to 911 and was passed along to SWAT, which responded to the home on Sanger Street. Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey said that when officers went into the home, they were first met by a woman but then saw a male run downstairs.
"An individual, a male, went down in the basement," Ramsey explained. "One of the officers went down after the suspect, lost sight of him. The suspect fired through a drywall and struck the one officer. The second officer went downstairs in support of his partner, and at that time, too, he was fired upon and was struck by gunfire. Fortunately, they were both wearing Kevlar, so neither bullet penetrated."
One of the officers was hit in a helmet, while the other was struck in a protective chest plate. Neither was injured, and they were able to return fire. Police said they weren't sure if Martinez was wounded in the original shooting, although he said he was. He remained holed-up in the Sanger Street home, not far from the Roosevelt Boulevard, for hours.
Police said the man fired at least once more from the basement after that. Negotiators were later communicating with him on the phone. "We'll just have to wait this out and let it unfold," Ramsey said at the time. Homes on either side of where the rowhome were evacuated, and any other neighbors within what police described as "a bullet's distance" were urged to stay inside.
Numerous streets were shut down in the area. Summerdale Avenue was closed between Scattergood and Cheltenham avenues, Sanger Street was closed between Frontenac and Langdon streets, and Langdon was closed between Brill Street and Cheltenham, too. Buses were having difficulty picking up children for school, so district officials announced they were closing Samuel Fels High School.