A shooting yesterday in North Philadelphia terrified the city. They identified the suspect as Maurice Hill, 36, and he shot six police officers, which debunks the myth that if only we had more armed people there would be less shootings. Trained police officers with guns were struck by bullets.
Now the mayor of Philadelphia is calling out the Trump administration for doing nothing.
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Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney said at a press conference, “Our officers need help. They need help with gun control. They need help with keeping these weapons out of these people’s hands.”
He continued, “This government, both on federal and state level, don’t want to do anything about getting these guns off the streets and getting them out of the hands of criminals. This guy is clearly a criminal, he was a criminal — he had, apparently a long record which I’m not sure, I don’t have it in front of me — but has been involved in the criminal justice system before. And he was able to get these weapons and a large magazine, a large amount of bullets.”
Kenney added, “So whether it’s our six officers who were shot or it’s some 15, 17, 20-year-old kid on the streets of Philadelphia who gets shot with guns that shouldn’t be in people’s hands, it’s aggravating, it’s saddening and it’s just something we need to do something about. And if the state and federal government don’t want to stand up to the NRA and some other folks, then let us police ourselves. But they preempt us on all kinds of gun control legislation.”
Watch below:
Hill surrendered early Thursday morning.
Local TV reporter Maggie Kent tweeted that all six of the police officers who were shot had already been released from the hospital.
Hill’s lawyer, Shaka Johnson, said he had represented the suspect on previous occasions. Johnson said that Hill called him during the standoff and sought advice before he was talked into surrendering.
The shooting broke out in the North Philadelphia neighborhood of Tioga-Nicetown earlier in the afternoon when police tried to serve a warrant at a home there. At least six officers were shot, though it was reported that none of them had life-threatening injuries.
“Police Commissioner Richard Ross said two officers remain trapped inside the house in the 3700 block of North 15th Street where the shootout first erupted at 4:30 p.m.,” the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. Police said at least one of the suspects was live-streaming the shooting on Facebook from inside the home where the warrant was being served.
According to statistics, the Nicetown neighborhood is more than 90 percent Black.
It’s been a violent summer in Philadelphia, where multiple people were shot over the weekend in the city’s Southwest section. One weekend in June saw 19 shootings and 28 victims with five people dying as a result. Prior to Wednesday’s shooting, the Philly Voice reported that there had been at least six mass shootings in the city in 2019.
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