Law enforcement has provided more details about the fatal police shooting of a man who allegedly opened fire on officers on the Fourth of July in Fairhill.
Four Philadelphia police officers responded at around 6 p.m. to a report of a domestic disturbance involving a man with a gun on the 2900 block of N. Lawrence Street, according to authorities.
As two of the cops approached the house, someone began shooting from behind a fence in a lot next to the property, the PPD said in a statement Thursday.
The officers took cover and were fired upon from a gunman inside the house, according to police. Ricardo Sosa, 40, came out of the building and began firing from a handgun, investigators added.
All four officers shot at Sosa as he got into the driver’s side of an empty PPD cruiser and attempted to flee the area while continuing to shoot, police said. Sosa then exited the patrol car and fell to the ground, investigators added. He died a short time later at Temple University Hospital.
Though plenty of bullets were fired, no officers or bystanders were struck, officials said.
“You see the amount of gunfire and how their police car is shot up,” First Deputy Police Commissioner John Stanford told reporters at the scene. “It is by the grace of God that we don’t have a number of officers that were injured or killed in this incident.”
Police recovered a 9mm handgun from the floor of the cop car, and fired cartridge casings were also discovered inside the vehicle, according to the PPD.
Body-worn cameras were activated for three of the four officers, and investigators have footage of the shooting.
All four officers – Maria Mairone, 28, Scottie Martinez, 29, Ryan Perez, 34, and Carl Szylejko, 32 – are assigned to the 25th Police District and have been placed on administrative duty pending internal probes and a District Attorney’s Office investigation. The procedure is standard for officer-involved shootings.
The incident coincided with a rash of gun violence over the holiday weekend, including a pair of mass shootings.
