A group of Philadelphia police officers was taunted by locals during a firefight and subsequent standoff that began on Wednesday night, painting an ill picture of the residents of the so-called “City of Brotherly Love.”
The uncouth display began after six officers were shot during a gun battle in Philadelphia’s Nicetown-Tioga area. Prior to the shootout, PPD was in the process of executing a narcotics warrant involving the suspect.
The high-casualty shootout quickly became a standoff, which attracted a crowd.
Gunfire remained fairly consistent between 4-10 PM, with sporadic bursts taking place roughly every 40 minutes.
Seemingly apathetic towards the fact that six police officers had been wounded, residents seemed more upset about the racket.
“When they started dumping with the firepower and stuff like that, they did it in front of the daycare, the babies were out and everything, that’s crazy. I’m a discharged veteran. I thought I was in a DMZ zone. It’s triggering PTSD, all types of things, all of this needs to be resolved. It’s senseless, seriously senseless,” one woman said of the incident, seemingly unaware that a demilitarized zone would generally be an area where fighting is absent.
CBS Local journalist Alexandria Hoff later took to Twitter to describe the unruly crowd, who mocked police officers and even acted in a hostile manner towards the camera crews.
“I mentioned this at 10 and since I was harassed during that live shot, I’ll mention it here too,” she wrote. “A major moment of disappointment this evening was watching a crowd of people taunt police officers, laughing and yelling at them in the midst of the gunfire.”
The shooter, who had barricaded himself into a dwelling for hours, surrendered to police early Thursday morning.
Miraculously, the six police officers are reported to be in “good spirits” and all are expected to survive.
© 2019 Bright Mountain Media, Inc. All rights reserved. The content of this webpage may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written consent of Bright Mountain Media, Inc. which may be contacted at info@brightmountainmedia.com, ticker BMTM.
