Philadelphia - A Swat team rescued two police officers
and three civilians trapped inside a Philadelphia house with an
active gunman after a shootout in which six officers were
wounded, police said on Wednesday.
The gunman remained barricaded inside the home, with police
urging him to surrender and media reporting he was armed with a
semi-automatic rifle similar to the popular AK-47 style and
several handguns.
Police moved in about five hours into the standoff that
began after the gunman opened fire on officers as they served a
drugs warrant inside the north Philadelphia home.
Swat officers used stealth to rescue the officers and three
suspects inside the house without the gunman knowing they had
entered the home, said Philadelphia Police Department
Commissioner Richard Ross.
"We've gone from a hostage situation to a barricade because
all the hostages were taken out safely," Ross told reporters.
He said it was "astounding" there had not been a greater
tragedy.
All six wounded officers were released from hospital on
Wednesday night, one officer surviving after a bullet grazed his
head and another after a bullet hit body armor on his back.
Picture: Matt Rourke/AP/African News Agency (ANA)
"Many of them had to escape through windows and doors to
escape from a barrage of bullets," Ross told a news conference.
The gunman fired on a Swat truck parked outside the
residence in the Nicetown-Tioga neighbourhood, with rounds
peppering buildings across the street as residents cowered
inside homes.
The Philadelphia Inquirer, citing police sources, identified
the suspected gunman as Maurice Hill, 36, a Philadelphia man
with a history of gun, drugs and assault convictions.
Attorney Shaka Mzee Johnson, who court documents show
recently represented Hill, did not respond immediately to a
request for comment.
Ross said the gunman stopped firing as night set in.
"We're optimistic that means that he's starting to
understand that there's some benefit of him coming out," Ross
said.
The incident followed a string of mass shootings in
California, Texas and Ohio in which gunmen used semi-automatic
rifles.
Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney said he was angry the gunman
was able to amass such firepower.
"We've got to get these weapons out of people's hands,"
Kenney said after visiting wounded officers in hospital. "This
government, both on a federal and states level, don't want to do
anything about getting these guns off the streets and out of the
hands of criminals."
President Donald Trump was monitoring the situation in
Philadelphia, according to the White House.