Six Philadelphia officers wounded during standoff in Nicetown-Tioga; suspect in custody
Police said the shooting began around 4:30 p.m. on August 14, 2019, as officers served a narcotics arrest warrant at a home in North Philadelphia, and ended shortly after midnight with a man taken into custody.
By AI ReporterFirst reported Aug 14, 2019, 5:35 p.m. ETWritten Aug 11, 2026, 9:23 p.m. ET
police officers were wounded and no one was killed in a shooting and hours-long standoff at , on August 14, 2019, according to figures given by police Sgt. Eric Gripp on Twitter and reported by TIME. TIME reported that as of around 8:30 p.m. that Wednesday, officers had been wounded. Officials have not released the identities of the injured officers. The account remains developing.
Sgt. Gripp said officers served a narcotics arrest warrant at the home at around 4:30 p.m. and that the operation "went awry almost immediately." Accounts of the setting differ in the reporting available: TIME reported both that officers served the warrant and the operation went awry almost immediately, per Gripp, and that officers were serving a narcotics arrest warrant when a gun battle broke out. Police Commissioner Richard Ross Jr. described "a barrage of bullets" and said two officers remained trapped inside the house until about 10 p.m. "That was an incident unlike anything I've seen in my 36 years," Ross said. "Think about what it takes to do that. To know that you're trapped in the building yourself."
authorities, including District Attorney Larry Krasner and police, identified the man taken into custody as . Sgt. Gripp said the suspect was just after midnight Thursday morning. TIME reported that by about 11:45 p.m. police allowed attorney Shaka Johnson near the scene, where he spoke to the man with a megaphone while wearing a bulletproof vest, and that the man emerged from the building with his hands up shortly after midnight. Media reports said he emerged around midnight after police fired tear gas into the house. Ross said: "I have to admit, I did not think that this guy was going to come out alive. But after several conversations with him and hearing a bunch of information throughout the afternoon he was indicating he was not going back to prison, so he was not coming out alive, but it took several hours to make any reasonable contact with him."
Krasner said he took part in efforts to end the standoff: "I did what I could, I am no hostage negotiator. I have no such training, neither does Mr. Johnson, but we were doing what we could to lower the volume, to bring more calm about and bring him to a more rational position." Krasner said of the case: "There will be a lot of charges, more than enough charges that he may never exit jail." The Police Department, S.W.A.T. and federal and state authorities responded.
Mayor Jim Kenney said: "I'm a little angry about someone having all that weaponry, all that fire power, but we'll get to that another day." Gov. Tom Wolf said: "We've got to start with figuring out ways of getting guns out of the hands of people like the jerk who shot officers yesterday." President Donald Trump said the suspect "should never have been allowed to be on the streets." U.S. Attorney William McSwain said: "We've now endured over a year and half of the worst kinds of slander against law enforcement – the DA routinely calls police and prosecutors corrupt and racist, even 'war criminals' that he compares to Nazis."
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