Bulletproof Vest Protects Philadelphia Polce Officer in Hospital Shooting

By David Matthews

Source New York Daily News

A man was killed in a harrowing shootout with police outside a Philadelphia hospital Thursday.

The incident began around 12:24 p.m. when officers stopped the man, who was experiencing a mental health crisis, while he was running through traffic, Philadelphia Police Commissioner Kevin Bethel said.

The man then volunteered to go to to Friends Hospital, a psychiatric facility in the city’s northeastern Crescentville neighborhood. Police put him in the backseat without handcuffs, Bethel said, because he had volunteered to go to the hospital.

They arrived at the hospital around 12:50 p.m., but the man became combative and attacked the two officers when they let him out of the car. The man was hit with a Taser — and all three fell to the ground.

While fighting, the man grabbed one of the officer’s guns and started shooting, hitting the edge of one of the officers’ bulletproof vests, authorities said. The other officer then shot the man multiple times.

All three were taken to a Temple University Hospital where the man was pronounced dead. The officers were treated and released.

The man’s identity was not released.

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