'Nothing short of a miracle': Dramatic standoff with Philadelphia gunman ends with no loss of life
Channel: M.G. GAMERS
Date: 2019-08-15

PHILADELPHIA — Throughout a seven-hour gun battle that turned a Philadelphia neighborhood into a war-zone and left six officers injured, the goal was "preservation of life," police commissioner Richard Ross said, explaining a day of intense gunfire and tear gas salvos before the gunman surrendered early Thursday.

At one point, with hundreds of officers pinned down by erratic gunfire, a SWAT team rescued two officers trapped upstairs with handcuffed prisoners in the north Philadelphia home. 

In the end, the police tactics worked as the shooter, with his hands up, was driven from his home after a tear gas barrage and all the injured officers were treated and released.

“It’s nothing short of a miracle that we don’t have multiple officers killed today," Ross said.

Throughout the ordeal, he said, the goal was “preservation of life, irrespective of who it is.”

The gunman was identified as Maurice Hill, 36, a Philadelphia man with an extensive record of gun convictions and resisting arrest, and Associated Press reported.

Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner said Hill could be charged with attempted murder and a number of others counts that would bring a life sentence if convicted.


He said Hill had a lengthy state and federal criminal, including past charges for a gun violation, drugs, DUI, aggravated assault, resisting arrest and even "taunting a police animal."

The suspect "should not have been on the streets,"  Krasner said at a Thursday press conference. 

Pennsylvania prison officials said a man with the same name and date of birth served about 2½ years on drug charges and was paroled in 2006 and served more than a year for aggravated assault and before being released in 2013.

The melee erupted as officers came to the house in a north Philadelphia neighborhood of brick and stone row homes to serve drug arrest warrants.

The standoff was especially unnerving as hundreds of officers, often pinned down by barrages of erratic gunfire from the house, had to operate in the densely populated area of narrow streets and tightly packed houses.