A Philadelphia police officer has shot a wanted man fatally shooting a woman in Kensington on October 8Researchers said this on Tuesday evening.
According to Deputy Commissioner for Investigations Frank Vanore, the police initially noticed the 29-year-old suspect and called for help. But the suspect fled from the police.
The two officers chased him and an altercation occurred near the 3100 block of Reach Street just after 5:30 p.m., police said. Both the 29-year-old suspect and at least one officer exchanged gunfire. The suspect was hit in the shoulder and is in critical but stable condition in hospital, Vanore said. According to Vanore, none of the officers were injured.
Vanore said the officers who found the 29-year-old suspect were patrolling the area at the time of the shooting and that authorities had been looking for him for weeks.
The 29-year-old suspect is suspected of shooting dead a 23-year-old woman who was walking near the street. Steak N Beer store on Kensington Avenue near Somerset Street back on October 8.
Police said they believed the woman was just a bystander and that the gunman intended to shoot someone else.
Witnesses told police the gunman was in the store when he got into an argument with one or two other men, Chief Inspector Scott Small said at the time of the shooting. The fight spilled out onto Kensington Avenue when the gunman fired a shot that hit the woman, who was about 200 feet down the street.
Police said the woman was 23 years old and was visiting the area. She was taken to Temple University Hospital after the shooting and pronounced dead.
In the days following the woman’s death, the homicide unit obtained an arrest warrant through video evidence for the 29-year-old man, who was actively sought by investigators.
