More police bloodshed

By William Kenny
Times Staff Writer

The recent offensive being lodged by Philadelphia’s criminals against the city’s police force spread last week onto a Frankford block notorious for gun violence.
This time, a 16-year-old suspected crack dealer allegedly took aim at police.
Gunfire broke out just before 6:30 p.m. on Nov. 13 at a boarding house and alleged crack house on the 2000 block of Orthodox St. as a team of nine narcotics officers were attempting to serve a search warrant on the property. Earlier in the day, they allegedly had made an undercover crack purchase there.
As the officers tried to break through the front door with a battering ram, someone fired a series of shots at them from a window, police said. Two officers were wounded, one in the left leg, the other in the right hip. Both were treated at area hospitals and released that night.
Authorities have not released the names of the injured officers, citing their ongoing undercover work.
Police say that Donyea Phillips, whom they described as a squatter in the house, fired the shots, setting off a three-hour standoff involving dozens of officers, including members of the department’s SWAT team.
Eventually, Phillips and six other occupants of the building surrendered without additional violence, police said. Phillips has been charged as an adult with nine counts of attempted murder, along with assault, weapons and drug offenses. He is being held without bail and was scheduled for a Nov. 19 preliminary hearing, which was to take place after the Times went to press.
One other occupant of the house, Troy Zimmerman, 21, of the 6700 block of Woolston Ave. in West Oak Lane, was charged with drug offenses. He is not accused of involvement in the shooting. The other five occupants were questioned by police and released.
The incident raised to six the number of Philadelphia police officers shot in the line of duty in the last two months, including 35th district Officer Charles Cassidy, who was fatally wounded Oct. 31 when he walked in on a botched armed robbery at a West Oak Lane doughnut shop.
The latest potentially lethal attack on police prompted an immediate call by Mayor John Street and Police Commissioner Sylvester Johnson for tougher state and federal gun laws.
Speaking outside the emergency room at Frankford Hospital-Frankford, where one of the wounded officers was treated, Johnson said that Pennsylvania has the softest gun control measures in the nation. That has made it easy for criminals to get their hands on guns and led to more gun violence in general.
"It is (police) who are suffering the most from this," Street added. "We see this deterioration of respect for law and order and for our police department. It is real easy for people to get real, real tough when they can get a gun on any corner."
Just over a year ago, a grocery store less than a block from the alleged crack house was the scene of a deadly lunchtime holdup.
On Oct. 30, 2006, two gunmen burst into Aurelia’s Food Market, at Orthodox Street and Torresdale Avenue, demanding money. When the merchant, 52-year-old Julio "Papi" Brito, protested, one of the men shot him in the chest. The shop owner died about 20 minutes later.
Police arrested both suspects within minutes. They await trial for murder and related charges.
Last week, as fellow officers rushed the wounded officers to hospitals, countless patrol cars responded to the scene of the shooting. A police helicopter circled at low altitude shining a spotlight into nearby streets and alleys.
Yellow crime-scene tape and marked police vehicles blocked segments of Orthodox Street, Torresdale Avenue, Ditman Street and Plum Street. Teams of officers searched vacant properties for suspects.
Many area residents found themselves caught in the midst of the crime scene, while others arrived to find that they were unable to return home. Dozens of neighbors and passersby stopped to watch the police activity.
As it became clearer that people were still inside the alleged boarding house, police parked an armored car outside the property and shined a bright light onto it. Officers were seen taking several males and females from the house and placing them in police wagons.
Then Johnson revealed that the suspected shooter was among those taken into custody. The police commissioner described the wounded officers as very lucky.
"(They were) just doing their job. They serve numerous amounts of warrants every year, every single month, every single week," Johnson said. "When you serve narcotics warrants, one thing you know is they’re going to have a gun in there." ••
Reporter William Kenny can be reached at 215-354-3031 or bkenny@phillynews.com