Two Philadelphia police officers were rushed to the hospital Saturday morning after a gunman shot them multiple times, officials said.
The shooting happened around 1 a.m. in the 100 block of North 52nd Street in West Philadelphia.
Police received a call about a man with a gun on the front porch of a home. When officers arrived, they approached and came under heavy fire, Commissioner Kevin Bethel said.
The officers were rushed to Penn Presbyterian Medical Center and no immediate information on their conditions was available.
Bethel described one officer as a 40-year-old man with two children. He was shot three times. Another police officer, a 33-year-old father of five, was shot 12 times, Bethel said.
After the first shots were fired, other officers were called to the scene and approached the suspect, who fired several shots at the responding officers.
The suspect was eventually arrested after police pulled him from a tree and took him into custody.
Police recovered three weapons at the scene: two handguns and a shotgun. One of the handguns had been taken from one of the officers who was shot, according to Bethel.
Mayor Cherelle Parker said the incident is a reminder of the dangers police officers face in their jobs and urged the public to pray for the officers’ recovery.
“I want to be very clear, I’m grateful for their service and the reason is, on nights like tonight. We think of them as law enforcement officers, but I see mothers and fathers, sons and daughters, brothers and sisters,” Parker said.
We are working to learn more about what led to the shooting.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
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