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There have been three shootings of police officers in the city of Philadelphia in the last few days, two of them in a 24 hour period. The last one was at a Dunkin Donuts, and resulted in the death of a Philadelphia police officer.
Apparently the same guy had robbed the Dunkin Donuts last month and had not been caught.
No doubt when they catch his murderer he will have a similar criminal history as well.
All of these shootings will of course result in more calls for gun control.
But what good is gun control when criminals who commit murder are given parole.
Chase and plunge: Center City attacker did time for murder
By David O'Reilly, Robert Moran and Michael Matza
Inquirer Staff Writers
The masked man who shot three people and a police officer in Center City before drowning in the Schuylkill while trying to escape was a convicted murderer only recently released from prison.
After a hot pursuit by police Tuesday night across downtown Philadelphia, the body of Jerome Whitaker, 29, was hauled from the river about 3 a.m. yesterday, a spokesman for the Philadelphia Medical Examiner's Office said.
Court records show Whitaker pleaded guilty to murder in the 1994 shooting of Michelle Cutner, 6, a South Philadelphia neighbor. His lawyer maintained Whitaker had fired into an unoccupied vehicle in revenge for an earlier quarrel and accidentally hit the girl, who was playing outside.
Whitaker served 11 years in state prison before being paroled in July 2006. He was arrested four months ago on drug charges and recommitted to prison for violating parole. He was released in September when the underlying charges were withdrawn.
Relatives say the drug case was dropped after Whitaker proved he had a prescription for the pills that were found on him at the time of his arrest.
Just six weeks later - Tuesday night - he was again in trouble with the law.
Police say Whitaker rolled up in an SUV and opened fire on a parked car near 15th and Sansom Streets about 10 p.m., wounding two men in their 30s and grazing a 20-year-old woman. The men remained in critical condition yesterday at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital. The woman was treated and released.
Police offered no motive for the apparent assassination attempt and declined to release the victims' names pending further investigation.
After he gave chase, Officer Mariano Santiago, 44, an 18-year veteran of the department, was shot in his right shoulder, police said, without giving further details. He remained hospitalized yesterday in guarded condition at Jefferson.
Police said Santiago had been on routine patrol in his squad car when he responded to a radio report of the first shootings. He intercepted the SUV on the west side of City Hall and gave chase, ending up on Sansom, where the gunman crashed his car into the brick wall along the parking lot of Greenfield Elementary School on the 2200 block.
The driver ran to the river.
Witnesses to the midtown mayhem were stunned.
Ed Chen, 25, was eating dinner at Bonner's Irish Pub at 23d and Sansom when he glanced out the door and saw someone running down Sansom "like there's no tomorrow."
"He bolts across [23d] Street without even looking to see if there are any cars coming, and I thought that was pretty strange. Then I saw a cop hobbling down the street after him, and I see he's bleeding from the back of his arm."
Chen, a cardiac nurse at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, said he had run from the bar to assist the officer, who was "hunched over, trying to talk into his radio."
Chen told the officer that he was a nurse and offered to help with the wound when a police car arrived, followed by others, as officers began searching side streets and alleys. A helicopter joined the hunt, aiming its searchlights onto the streets and the nearby river.
Chen said the man he had seen running wore a white hooded sweatshirt and dark pants.
Andrew Macintosh, 26, a Penn graduate student, said several friends who live in the 2400 Chestnut apartment tower overlooking the Schuylkill had told him that they saw the suspect "run across the parking lot" at the end of Sansom, "climb the fence, and jump into the water."
The Schuylkill, about 300 yards wide at that point, is channelized by sheer concrete walls that rise six or seven feet above the water.
There are a few ladders on the wall, said a Philadelphia Water Department worker who operates a boat and was tying up nearby - "but you'd never find them in the dark."
At the center of town, where the chase began, Sam Driban, owner of the Black Cat Cigar Co. in the 1500 block of Sansom, said he was working late Tuesday, "finishing my Christmas catalogues, when I heard this pop-pop-pop."
Moments later, he said, police flooded the area, hustling down alleys, guns drawn. He said it had reminded him of "the wild, wild West."
Relatives said Whitaker had been living for about a year with a cousin in Southwest Philadelphia.
He had been working on and off and just started a job last week at a Northeast Philadelphia company, said his mother, Cynthia Edwards.
She last spoke to him Tuesday afternoon, she said. He had just gotten off work and was stopping by to visit family. He spoke about being tired and wanting to clean up when he got home, and there was no indication he was having problems, Edwards said.
"I don't know what happened," she said.
Apparently the same guy had robbed the Dunkin Donuts last month and had not been caught.No doubt when they catch his murderer he will have a similar criminal history as well.
All of these shootings will of course result in more calls for gun control.
But what good is gun control when criminals who commit murder are given parole.
Chase and plunge: Center City attacker did time for murder
By David O'Reilly, Robert Moran and Michael Matza
Inquirer Staff Writers
The masked man who shot three people and a police officer in Center City before drowning in the Schuylkill while trying to escape was a convicted murderer only recently released from prison.
After a hot pursuit by police Tuesday night across downtown Philadelphia, the body of Jerome Whitaker, 29, was hauled from the river about 3 a.m. yesterday, a spokesman for the Philadelphia Medical Examiner's Office said.
Court records show Whitaker pleaded guilty to murder in the 1994 shooting of Michelle Cutner, 6, a South Philadelphia neighbor. His lawyer maintained Whitaker had fired into an unoccupied vehicle in revenge for an earlier quarrel and accidentally hit the girl, who was playing outside.
Whitaker served 11 years in state prison before being paroled in July 2006. He was arrested four months ago on drug charges and recommitted to prison for violating parole. He was released in September when the underlying charges were withdrawn.
Relatives say the drug case was dropped after Whitaker proved he had a prescription for the pills that were found on him at the time of his arrest.
Just six weeks later - Tuesday night - he was again in trouble with the law.
Police say Whitaker rolled up in an SUV and opened fire on a parked car near 15th and Sansom Streets about 10 p.m., wounding two men in their 30s and grazing a 20-year-old woman. The men remained in critical condition yesterday at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital. The woman was treated and released.
Police offered no motive for the apparent assassination attempt and declined to release the victims' names pending further investigation.
After he gave chase, Officer Mariano Santiago, 44, an 18-year veteran of the department, was shot in his right shoulder, police said, without giving further details. He remained hospitalized yesterday in guarded condition at Jefferson.
Police said Santiago had been on routine patrol in his squad car when he responded to a radio report of the first shootings. He intercepted the SUV on the west side of City Hall and gave chase, ending up on Sansom, where the gunman crashed his car into the brick wall along the parking lot of Greenfield Elementary School on the 2200 block.
The driver ran to the river.
Witnesses to the midtown mayhem were stunned.
Ed Chen, 25, was eating dinner at Bonner's Irish Pub at 23d and Sansom when he glanced out the door and saw someone running down Sansom "like there's no tomorrow."
"He bolts across [23d] Street without even looking to see if there are any cars coming, and I thought that was pretty strange. Then I saw a cop hobbling down the street after him, and I see he's bleeding from the back of his arm."
Chen, a cardiac nurse at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, said he had run from the bar to assist the officer, who was "hunched over, trying to talk into his radio."
Chen told the officer that he was a nurse and offered to help with the wound when a police car arrived, followed by others, as officers began searching side streets and alleys. A helicopter joined the hunt, aiming its searchlights onto the streets and the nearby river.
Chen said the man he had seen running wore a white hooded sweatshirt and dark pants.
Andrew Macintosh, 26, a Penn graduate student, said several friends who live in the 2400 Chestnut apartment tower overlooking the Schuylkill had told him that they saw the suspect "run across the parking lot" at the end of Sansom, "climb the fence, and jump into the water."
The Schuylkill, about 300 yards wide at that point, is channelized by sheer concrete walls that rise six or seven feet above the water.
There are a few ladders on the wall, said a Philadelphia Water Department worker who operates a boat and was tying up nearby - "but you'd never find them in the dark."
At the center of town, where the chase began, Sam Driban, owner of the Black Cat Cigar Co. in the 1500 block of Sansom, said he was working late Tuesday, "finishing my Christmas catalogues, when I heard this pop-pop-pop."
Moments later, he said, police flooded the area, hustling down alleys, guns drawn. He said it had reminded him of "the wild, wild West."
Relatives said Whitaker had been living for about a year with a cousin in Southwest Philadelphia.
He had been working on and off and just started a job last week at a Northeast Philadelphia company, said his mother, Cynthia Edwards.
She last spoke to him Tuesday afternoon, she said. He had just gotten off work and was stopping by to visit family. He spoke about being tired and wanting to clean up when he got home, and there was no indication he was having problems, Edwards said.
"I don't know what happened," she said.
