A Philadelphia police officer is under investigation for his “extremely disappointing” conduct surrounding a hit-and-run crash that left a man dead early Thursday morning in Olney, department leaders said.
Detectives are also searching for the driver involved in the incident, who was behind the wheel of a 2023-2026 Jungle Green Kia Sportage X-Line that ran over the pedestrian at around 1:45 a.m. Aug. 27 on the 5500 block of Rising Sun Avenue.
Five minutes before the collision, an officer stopped his patrol car when he saw the victim, a 48-year-old man who has not been publicly identified, walking with an “unsteady gait” in the bike lane, First Deputy Police Commissioner John Stanford told reporters during a briefing Friday.
When the man fell to the ground, the officer got out and spoke with him before driving off in his PPD vehicle, Stanford said. The man’s body was mostly in the bike lane but extended partially into the travel lane, he added.
Stanford said surveillance footage shows a car stopping, possibly due to the person in the street. The driver behind them, in the Kia SUV, swerves around to pass in the bike lane and hits the man before fleeing the scene.
Passersby pulled the man over the curb and dialed 911, according to law enforcement. The officer who encountered the victim earlier was first to the scene, and he did not render aid, begin an investigation or file a police report, Stanford said.
Medics took the man to the hospital, where he died at around 6:15 a.m. Thursday, authorities said. Crash detectives were not notified of the incident until a couple of hours later, when the Medical Examiner’s Office reached out, Stanford added.
“What we can see on the video doesn’t fall in line with our practices as a police department,” he remarked. “Very troubling to see that there is an officer that responds to this location and fails to render any type of aid to the individual.”
Stanford, who referred to the officer’s behavior as "embarrassing," said he should have moved the man out of the street and determined whether he was impaired, suffering from a medical condition or had some other issue.
The PPD has not publicly identified the officer but stated that he has two years on the force and is assigned to the 35th Police District in North Philadelphia. He has been placed on administrative duty, pending the outcome of an internal probe, Stanford said.
A police spokesperson told Metro on Sunday that no arrests had been made in connection with the hit and run. Anyone with information is asked to contact the Crash Investigation Division at 215-685-3180 or 3181 or call or text the PPD tip line at 215-686-TIPS (8477).
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