I was a reporting intern at the
Philadelphia Inquirer in June 1992, when a police shooting came over the police
band radio one night. An officer had been shot in the West Philly. I grabbed
the cell phone (remember the huge ones they had back then?), and a notepad,
jumped into a company car, and drove straight over to the scene. When I got on
the block I found the area around a private home in the middle of the block
cordoned off, and police swarming all over. There was a bus parked just a few
feet away from the house.
When I finally got to speak to a
police spokesperson, I was told that two police officers were responding to a
call, and knocked on the door of the now cordoned-off house. An unidentified
man came to the door with a gun and shot one of the officers. The fallen
officer’s partner managed to pull him away from the house and called for
backup.
