Federal prosecutors have lodged new criminal charges against Eric Lewis, the suspect in the killing of Police Officer Shane Seiber earlier this month in West Philadelphia.
Meanwhile, Police Commissioner Kevin Bethel characterized District Attorney Larry Krasner’s remarks — in which he blamed the failure of Lewis’ earlier murder case on police misconduct — as “absolutely unacceptable.”
Krasner responded by saying that he was trying to "correct false information communicated to multiple media outlets by a senior-level law enforcement official who works directly for" Bethel.
Those developments came during and in the hours after a news conference Thursday afternoon organized by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.
Lewis, a 35-year-old Philadelphia Water Department employee, is accused of shooting Seiber and a second officer, Hector Rodriguez III, early on the morning of Oct. 10 on the 100 block of N. 52nd Street. He opened fire on nine other officers who responded to the situation before being apprehended, according to authorities.
The District Attorney’s Office, in the aftermath of the shooting, charged him with murdering a law enforcement officer and 10 counts of attempted murder, among other crimes. Those offenses could land Lewis in prison for the rest of his life.
He now faces five additional counts in federal court, related to robbery and weapons violations. The charges stem from Lewis stealing Rodrgiuez’s service weapon and possessing two additional firearms — a privately-made “ghost gun” and a sawed-off shotgun — at the time of the killing.
U.S. Attorney David Metcalf noted that his office and local prosecutors can pursue parallel cases against the same defendant for the same incident. Krasner said he "fully supports" the new charges.
If convicted of the federal crimes, Lewis would be subject to a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years incarceration.
After it was discovered that Lewis had previously been charged with murder, Krasner, a progressive prosecutor, faced questions and criticism from the press, right-wing influencers and others.
Three years ago, Lewis was acquitted at trial for the 2019 homicide of 32-year-old Christopher Williams, who was killed in a double shooting in the Mill Creek section of West Philadelphia. Had he been convicted, Lewis likely would have spent decades behind bars and almost certainly would not have been out on the street Oct. 10.
Krasner, in a video and statement released three days after Seiber died, said the presiding judge referred PPD personnel to the department’s Internal Affairs Division for “arguably criminal” conduct that tainted the investigation.
Specifically, an officer involved in the case was in a romantic relationship with Lewis’s sister and fabricated an anonymous tip that implicated a fictitious person in an attempt to clear Lewis, according to Krasner.
“I'm here with some of the smartest and most effective prosecutors in America,” Bethel said Thursday inside the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Old City. “If they have a case that's not an effective case, they wouldn't even walk in the door with it.”
Bethel stated that he has never seen a city leader “stand up and talk about something that is unnecessary” when a family is in the depths of grief. Seiber, a 40-year-old married father of two young children, was buried Tuesday, Oct. 20, following a funeral service at the Cathedral Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul.
The police commissioner acknowledged that he fired the officer who allegedly created the false tip.
“I will hold my department accountable when we are wrong, but everybody else should hold them damn selves accountable as well,” Bethel added.
Krasner, speaking to the media Friday afternoon, said he felt compelled to defend the attorneys who handled Lewis' earlier case after a member of Bethel's "inner circle" went to the press. He declined to name the PPD leader accused of leaking the information.
“As much as I would have liked not to have to respond to this character assassination, and that’s what it was, directed at two incredibly competent attorneys who did everything that was humanly possible, I had no choice but to correct this communication initiated by the inner circle of Police Commissioner Bethel," Krasner said.
“That acquittal was the direct result of one of the worst investigations that I have seen in nearly 40 years of criminal practice," he added.
Krasner went on to say that the DA's Office is considering filing criminal charges against at least one of the officers involved in gathering evidence related to the 2019 homicide.
He also decried a lack of communication between his office, Bethel and Mayor Cherelle Parker, despite repeated attempts on his part.
“Sadly, One Philly, A City United is not what is happening," Krasner commented, referencing the Parker administration's motto.
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