Police kill teen
amid domestic fight

A 15-year-old Crescentville boy shot and killed by police on Monday threatened officers with a clothes iron during a violent domestic dispute with his mother, Police Commissioner Sylvester Johnson said one day after the incident.
Nonetheless, Johnson told reporters, the police department’s Internal Affairs unit and the District Attorney’s Office will conduct a full investigation to determine if an officer’s use of deadly force was necessary.
Ronald Timbers, 15, of the 600 block of Brill St., suffered a single gunshot wound of the neck and died at Albert Einstein Medical Center less than an hour after the early-afternoon incident.
The police department has not identified the officer who shot Timbers, but said that he fired a single round at the boy. The officer has been placed on administrative duty pending the outcome of the probe.
Patrol cops from the Northeast’s 2nd district were called to Timbers’ home at about 1:30 p.m. in response to a police radio report of a domestic dispute. Upon their arrival, officers heard "hollering and screaming" from inside the residence and someone pleading for help, Johnson said.
Two cops entered the home and saw the teen holding a knife and hammer while on top of his prone mother, Johnson said. The officers ordered the boy to drop the weapons, which the mother managed to strip from him, the commissioner said.
Police have not identified the mother by name.
The youth then ran to the second floor and re-emerged at the top of the stairs holding the iron above his head, Johnson said. Officers ordered him to drop it, but Timbers continued toward them, according to the commissioner. That’s when one of the cops shot the teen.
He was pronounced dead at Einstein at 2:10 p.m.
Though all Philadelphia public schools were closed on Monday for Columbus Day, Timbers reportedly was not attending school. He reportedly was enrolled at the CEP Miller Alternative School, a disciplinary school in West Philadelphia, as recently as last month. ••