Philadelphia gunman surrenders after lengthy stand-off in which six cops were shot
- Narcotics officers went to a house in the US city to deliver an arrest warrant, which led to shots being fired and a stand-off
- Police commissioner says it’s ‘nothing short of a miracle’ that no officers were killed
A US gunman who shot six Philadelphia police officers on Wednesday afternoon surrendered at around midnight, ending a dramatic stand-off that had two officers trapped for several hours inside a house with the suspect.
Earlier, Philadelphia police commissioner Richard Ross confirmed that the officers and several people they had handcuffed during the tense stand-off had been safely extracted from the property in the Tioga section of North Philadelphia.
Police sources identified the suspected gunman as Maurice Hill, 36. He has a lengthy history of gun convictions and of resisting attempts to bring him to justice.
Several minutes before he exited, police fired tear gas into the property, making a series of booming sounds. Hill finally came out to a sea of cops shouting: “Hands up! Hands up! Get down! Get down!”
At an earlier news conference outside the hospital, where some of the injured officers were taken, Ross said he had personally tried to talk to the shooter in an effort to negotiate a surrender. He said the man had picked up the phone but had not verbally responded.
“He can end this peacefully now,” said Ross, who was wearing a ballistic vest.