Posted on 01/09/2008 5:14:24 AM PST by grjr21
ABEDE ISAAC, though riddled with bullets that were still blasting into the East Germantown rowhouse, saw the 9-year-old son of his girlfriend coming down the stairs into the hail of bullets.
Isaac yelled at the boy, "Get up the stairs!" said Clinton Rogers, the homeowner, who witnessed the incident. Then, despite his wounds, Isaac struggled up the steps behind the boy, forcing him upward.
Even so, the boy, Nyger Page, was grazed by one of 11 shots that were fired into the house.
Isaac, 33, blood streaming down his face, made it to the top of the stairs, where he collapsed. He died Monday at Albert Einstein Medical Center of facial and body wounds.
Meanwhile, the 30 to 40 guests at a New Year's Eve party at the house were shouting for someone to call the police.
Then the awful truth dawned: The bullets had been fired by a police officer.
Also wounded was Michael Johnson, 32, who was hit in the abdomen and arm, and Dontate Mitchell, 21, also hit in the arm.
Whether the shooting was justified is the focus of an investigation by police and the district attorney's office.
Police said the tragedy began when Officers George Marko and Joseph Kelly came upon Mitchell firing a pistol in the air at Woodlawn Avenue and Boyer Street to celebrate the New Year.
The officers ordered Mitchell to put the weapon down, but instead he ran up on the porch of the house on Boyer Street where the party was being held, and went inside, police said.
Deputy Commissioner Richard Ross, of the Internal Affairs Division, said Marko had claimed that Mitchell pointed the pistol at him and that he opened fire on the man.
However, Ross said that Kelly apparently didn't feel the same threat from Mitchell that Marko did. Kelly didn't fire his weapon, Ross said.
"We are still trying to discern exactly what the other officer saw, but at this particular time we don't believe that he felt the same threat level, but we don't know why," Ross said.
"And that's one of the things we have to get to the bottom of."
The gun that Mitchell supposedly fired has not been found, police said, but bullets that weren't from Marko's weapon were discovered at the scene.
When the bullets started crashing into the house, Rogers, 30, who owns the house and was the host of the party, pushed his 3-year-old daughter to the floor and covered her.
Of Isaac's act of heroism, Rogers said, "If he didn't push that little boy up the stairs, he would have been killed."
He didn't know Isaac, he said, but he knew Isaac's girlfriend, Nya Page, Nyger's mother.
"You can justify two shots," Rogers said, "but you can't explain 11."
He said he took photographs of the bullet holes and the blood in his house.
One of the party guests, Markita Hines, said, "Once the bullets started coming through the door, people started calling the police. But then we realized it was the cops that were shooting at us."
"Every New Year, I'm going to have to live with the fact that a man was killed in my house," Rogers said. "This is something I will never forget a day in my life."
When Isaac's girlfriend called him Monday with the news that Isaac had died, Rogers said, "I was up all night. I haven't been able to sleep. I could have lost my own daughter."
He said his terrified daughter is now afraid to be alone and won't go upstairs.
Hines said she was thanking God that she had sent her two children home before the shooting started.
"All I know is that we were counting down with Dick Clark and when we got to Happy New Year, everybody was all over the place," Hines said.
"It's devastating," Hines said of Isaac's death. She said she helped cover up the bullet holes in the front door to try to help the children feel safe again.
Marko has been taken off street patrol, which is standard procedure when an officer discharges a weapon, Ross said.
"On behalf of Police Commissioner [Charles] Ramsey and the Police Department, we just want to express our sincerest condolences to the Isaac family," Ross said.
Ramsey, who took office Monday, echoed Ross' sentiments saying, "It's obviously of great concern whenever someone passes away. The matter is under investigation by Internal Affairs. There will be a full investigation. I offer my condolences to the family."
Police originally arrested Steven Walker, 38, after the shooting because Walker, a guest at the party, fit the description of the man who had been seen firing the gun.
In Municipal Court yesterday morning at the 35th Police District, at Broad Street and Champlost Avenue, the prosecution formally dropped charges against Walker.
When Walker's name was called out by a court officer, who thought he was in custody, Walker yelled out, "Excuse me, I'm not in custody!"
Walker had been charged with firearms offenses and recklessly endangering another person.
Also in the same courtroom before Judge Teresa Carr Deni, a preliminary hearing was continued for Dontate Mitchell on charges of aggravated assault, weapons and related offenses.
Mitchell, a part-time mailer for Philadelphia Media Holdings, owner of the Daily News and Inquirer, is scheduled to be back in court Feb. 12.
Mitchell has a previous conviction for a gun charge, court records showed.
"It's standard in all cases where a police officer discharges his weapon for the district attorney's office to investigate," said Assistant District Attorney Thomas Lipscomb. Until an officer is cleared of wrongdoing, he generally is not called to testify.
Bruce Ginsburg, a lawyer representing the family of 9-year-old Nyger Page and who also represents the family of Bryan Jones, a man fatally shot by police last New Year's Eve, said this shooting reflects the need for more police training.
"The police need better regulation by the city as to training. They need more training to better understand what to do in those circumstances and what the civil rights of citizens are," Ginsburg said.
"It can't be that you shoot first and worry about the circumstan-ces later," he added.
Ross said, "It's a possibility but we are not anywhere near determining whether anybody was even at fault at this point." *
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“”You can justify two shots,” Rogers said, “but you can’t explain 11.””
I don’t see cause for the 2. If it was just the two of them and the perp pointed his gun at the cop then ok it was justifiable. However with a house full of people behind the perp its negligent for the officer to open fire. The fact his partner didn’t open fire instead points to a trigger happy cop.
The other bullets found were probably the result of the idiot shooting the gun for celebration.
Firing a weapon into the air on New Year's Eve is a civil right? Who knew!
Paging Fast Eddie...
Or a cop who's aware of the number of LEOs who've been shot in Philly recently.
Just because they do it in Baghdad doesn't make it OK in civilized urban areas. But it looks like the cop shot too soon, if this story is accurate. That's a BIG IF.
Exactly. At least one of the cops was sane......
It seems that the Police aren’t denying the officer fired the shots but what is bothering me is that not only did he miss but he also failed to arrest the right suspect
“Or a cop who’s aware of the number of LEOs who’ve been shot in Philly recently.”
I would place a heavy wager that all cops are aware of the number of LEOs who’ve been shot. I would also wager that they are aware of the number of people killed by cops.
Shooting at someone is a heavy responsibility. You are responsible for every single bullet. There were 30-40 people in this house of which the cop was mostly likely aware. He endangered each and everyone of their lives. Its fortunate that only one innocent person was killed. He should be charged with manslaughter or worse.
Why the hell didn’t the cops just back off and wait for back-up?The guy ran inside ans wasn’t an immediate threat to them.
Firing 11 shots into a house with children, striking 4 different people, because 1 guy had a pistol? Hmm.
The gun that Mitchell supposedly fired has not been found, police said, but bullets that weren’t from Marko’s weapon were discovered at the scene.
FWIW, I'll wait to see the results of the investigation before I hang this guy out to dry.
Reports from the battlefield can be notoriously inaccurate. 'Bout the only thing I know for sure is that I'm darn glad I don't live in Philly.
The one cop sounds like a real cowboy-I’m glad I don’t live there too...
Would it kill ya to wait for the investigation? :)
FWIW, I'd be more worried about the citizenry than the fuzz.
From '05....
A Snitch in Time Community leaders think pro-crime T-shirts send the wrong message.
Hardly. And that's not what I said, is it?
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