Philadelphia police shot multiple times, suffers nerve damage
A US police officer in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, was shot multiple times by a gunman who told authorities he had pledged loyalty to the Daesh (ISIL) terrorist group.
The police officer was ambushed execution-style on Thursday night while sitting in his marked police car, Philadelphia Police Commissioner Richard Ross said Friday at a news conference.
Ross said the attacker told authorities he was pledging allegiance to ISIL, the terrorist group that controls parts of Iraq and Syria.
“When you look at the video … this is absolutely one of the scariest things I’ve ever seen,” Ross said. “This guy tried to execute the police officer. The police officer had no idea he was coming.”
The unidentified attacker, a 30-year-old man, got so close to the car that at one point, he had his gun inside the car, firing at the officer.
Police believe he fired a total of 13 shots at officer Jesse Hartnett, 33, who was driving through an intersection in West Philadelphia at about 11:40 pm.
Ross said there is “significant damage to his arm,” adding that Hartnett’s arm was broken and he likely had nerve damage.
The FBI said they were assisting the Philadelphia Police Department in investigating the shooting.
Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf released a statement saying the shooting “is horrifying and has no place” in his state. “We are thankful that officer Hartnett is alive and not facing life-threatening injuries after being ambushed,” Wolf said.
Law enforcement officers across the US have expressed increasing concerns about ambush attacks in recent years. In 2014, 15 officers were shot and killed in surprise attacks, more than any other type of shooting.
Analysts believe tensions between police and citizens have reached an all-time high in recent years over the use of excessive force by police, particularly against minorities.
Large-scale protests have been triggered around the country against police brutality and racial injustice in the past two years.
Police in the United States fatally shot nearly 1,000 people in 2015, of which 90 were unarmed and did not possess weapons of any kind during a confrontation, according to recent report by the Washington Post.
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