NEWS > 29 April 2006

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Philadelphia Inquirer - Philad
29 April 2006

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Rising tide of killings by pol

Officers have shot 11 people to death so far this year, equal to the toll for all of '03 and only three short of '04's.

It started as a routine pedestrian stop in West Philadelphia at which police say they asked for identification from three men shooting dice Thursday evening.

After one of the men, wanted on a probation violation, ran, the incident quickly turned into a fatal police shooting, the second within six hours. It was the fourth within a week and the 11th this year, an alarming number, law enforcement officials say.

"In the early part of this year, police have been confronted with a significant number of situations where officers have been faced with the need to use deadly force in order to protect themselves," said Capt. Benjamin Naish, a police spokesman.

As of yesterday, Philadelphia police had been involved in 37 shootings this year, including the 11 fatalities, Naish said.

Last year during the same period, there were 47 shootings, with seven fatalities, Naish said.

"The government's right to shoot and kill a human being is one of the most profound acts and should be subject to the strictest possible scrutiny," said Ellen Green-Ceisler, the former director of the police Integrity and Accountability Office.

Green-Ceisler stepped down as accountability officer more than a year ago and Mayor Street has left the position unfilled.

According to a report prepared by Green-Ceisler last year, in 2003 police killed 11 people during the entire year. In 2004, 14 people were killed, compared with an average of five civilian fatalities from 1998 through 2002.

"This is a troubling trend that warrants close attention and monitoring," Green-Ceisler wrote in the report.

The sharp increase that Philadelphia is seeing this year may reflect more dangerous streets that police are encountering, she said.

"If there are more shootings by police and suspects being killed, that in and of itself is not an indication the officers and the Police Department have acted inappropriately," Green-Ceisler said.

The number of shooting victims who are not shot by police is up 8 percent compared with last year. There were 115 homicides by all means as of Thursday, the same as for the same period last year. Nearly 84 percent of the victims were killed by firearms.

"The most important thing is that each shooting has to be thoroughly investigated," Green-Ceisler said, referring to police shootings.

Thursday night, Commissioner Sylvester M. Johnson went to the home of Raymond Pelzer, 25, of the first block of North Hobart Street, and assured his family that a thorough investigation would be conducted.

Here is the account police gave of that shooting:

About 5:30 p.m. Thursday, police approached Pelzer and two others playing dice in the first block of North Millick Street. Pelzer gave police his identification, but ran as officers were running a background check, which showed he was wanted for a violation of probation, which would have led to incarceration.

As other officers responded for backup, Officer Marvin Burton spotted the suspect at Redfield and Arch Streets and chased him to the rear of 51 N. Salford St. An off-duty officer was in her private car when she saw the chase.

Burton ordered Pelzer to show his hands. Instead, the suspect cupped both hands on his belt as if he had a gun and told the officer, "Do it."

The officer fired a single shot. Pelzer was not armed.

By the time the off-duty officer arrived, the shooting was over and she realized the victim was her cousin.

Burton, who was placed on administrative duty as is practice while an internal investigation is done, is not related to police retiree Marvin Burton, who was an executive officer to three commissioners, including Johnson, police said.

Pelzer's death came six hours after a traffic officer, Thomas Bullock, fatally shot Sam Ryan, 36, near his home at Hicks and Pine Streets in Center City. Police said Ryan, armed with a handgun, allegedly circled the officer, refused to drop the weapon, and was shot after pointing the gun at him.

Police said Ryan had approached a utility worker in the area and asked whether the utility worker was going to shoot him. While the utility worker called 911, another person flagged down Bullock, who asked Ryan a dozen times to put the gun down. The officer backed into a wall as Ryan circled him and walked toward him, witnesses told police.

Bullock will remain on administrative duty while that shooting is investigated.

The sharp rise in police shootings stands in stark contrast to the low numbers recorded when John F. Timoney was police commissioner. In 2001, his last full year as commissioner, the department only had two fatal shootings.

In Miami, where Timoney is now police chief, "we went through the first 20 months with discharging a single bullet," he said.

Last year, Miami police killed one person and wounded two others in shootings. Before he arrived, Timoney said, "we used to average 16 to 18 shootings a year."

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Article sourced from

Philadelphia Inquirer - Philad29 April 2006

Rising tide of killings by pol

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Philadelphia Inquirer - Philad
29 April 2006