A judge, citing lack of evidence, dropped all charges Tuesday against Mark Dial, the former Philadelphia police officer who fatally shot 27-year-old Eddie “Junito” Irizarry Jr. last month in Kensington.
Municipal Court Judge Wendy L. Pew, in announcing her decision, said she “100%” agreed with Dial’s defense team, who argued that their client plausibly believed Irizarry had a gun during the Aug. 14 traffic stop.
“Every tragedy is not a crime,” attorney Brian McMonagle, representing Dial, said minutes before Pew’s ruling. “This isn’t malicious conduct. This is officers doing their job.”
The District Attorney’s Office immediately moved to refile the charges, including murder, against Dial and appeal the case to the Court of Common Pleas.
Emotions erupted inside the courtroom after Pew’s decision, with relatives of Irizarry expressing anger as they left the building.
“The evidence is there in your face. The videos were played in the courtroom,” Irizarry’s aunt, Zoraida Garcia, told reporters. “So you’re saying that it’s okay to kill? Are you saying that it’s okay to murder someone because you’re a police officer, because you have a badge?”
“My family here is standing up, and we’re going to continue to fight,” she added. “This was a murder.”
McMonagle and his team asserted that the handle of Irizarry’s pocket knife, which he allegedly held up as officers approached his sedan, resembled a gun. They also claimed that the word “gun” could be heard on doorbell camera footage in the moments before the shooting.
Prosecutors pointed out that Dial opened fire just seven seconds after getting out of his police cruiser. He jumped out with his gun drawn and could clearly be heard on tape saying “I’m going to f—ing shoot you.”
“The videos do not lie,” Assistant District Attorney Karima Yelverton told the judge.
Sheriffs led Dial, 27, of the Far Northeast, into the courtroom for the hearing, after a different judge revoked his bail last week.
Court staff brought him tissues after he became emotional watching the body-worn camera footage from his partner, Officer Michael Morris, and Dial also wept as attorneys played video from his own body camera.
Morris was one of two witnesses questioned at the hearing, and his testimony included new details about the circumstances of Irizarry’s death.
He was driving, with Dial in the passenger’s seat, when they spotted Irizarry’s car speed around them into the bicycle lane and make a quick right turn at B and Westmoreland streets, Morris said. The officers followed him and saw the brown sedan swerving, nearly striking parked cars, he added.
After briefly losing sight of Irizarry’s car, Morris said they saw it turning the wrong way down the 100 block of E. Willard Street, a one-lane, one-way road. Another vehicle, facing the correct direction, was double-parked in the middle of the block as Irizarry pulled into a parking spot, Morris testified.
At no point did Morris or Dial activate their emergency lights and sirens, prosecutors alleged. Morris told the court they intended to pull Irizarry over for driving the wrong direction.
While still in the driver’s seat of the police vehicle, Morris said he saw Irizarry press a knife against his leg while nervously looking side-to-side. Then, he added, Irizarry turned raised knife so that the tip was turned upwards.
That weapon was later determined to be a pocket knife with a three-and-a-half-inch blade, detective Peter Marrero, of the PPD’s Officer Involved Shooting Unit, later testified. A second, kitchen-style knife was also found inside the car, according to Marrero.
While being interrogated by prosecutors, Morris said he yelled out to Dial that Irizarry had a knife. During cross-examination, McMonagle showed the security camera footage, originally procured by a lawyer for Irizarry’s family.
Dial’s defense team has interpreted the audio from that clip as someone yelling “drop that f—ing gun,” followed by the word “knife.” McMonagle questioned Morris about it, and the officer said that characterization was “fair.”
Irizarry died after Dial shot him multiple times, firing at least five bullets from close range through the driver’s side window and windshield of the sedan.
The curved, black metallic handle of the pocket knife could easily be mistaken as a firearm, McMonagle argued in court, and he told reporters outside the Juanita Kidd Stout Center for Criminal Justice that it looked like a .38 handgun.
“Once we saw the knife, once we heard the testimony, once the court heard everything in this case, there was nothing, nothing under law that she could do but discharge this case,” he said.
Dial, following Pew’s decision, was released. He had been held in a city jail since Tuesday, Sept. 19, when prosecutors successfully argued that he, like others charged with murder, should be denied bail.
Mayor Jim Kenney, in a post on X, formerly Twitter, said he trusts the DA’s Office will “do everything in its power to pursue justice and accountability.”
“My thoughts are with Eddie Irizarry’s family and loved ones today as they continue to seek justice and answers around his death,” Kenney said.
Then-Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw, who resigned last week, decided to fire Dial, a five-year PPD veteran, in August, accusing him of not cooperating with the department’s internal investigation.
He was charged Sept. 8 with murder, voluntary manslaughter, aggravated assault, simple assault, reckless endangerment and official oppression.
