2 suspects plead guilty in 2020 shooting death of Philadelphia Police Sgt. James O'Connor
PHILADELPHIA - Two men accused in the fatal shooting of a Philadelphia police officer serving an arrest warrant pleaded guilty Wednesday, nearly five years after the deadly shooting.
Sgt. James O'Connor, 46, was shot to death in March 2020 while working with SWAT to arrest Hassan Elliott at a home on Bridge Street in Frankford.
Elliott and three others who investigators said were part of a violent drug trafficking group were arrested and charged in the deadly shooting. Elliott and Khalif Sears entered guilty pleas on Wednesday.
O'Connor, a husband and father, was laid to rest during a private funeral mass in May 2020 that was delayed due to the COVID pandemic.
The backstory:
Sgt. James O'Connor, 46, was killed in March 2020 while serving an arrest warrant on the 1600 block of Bridge Street in Philadelphia's Frankford neighborhood.
Investigators allege Hassan Elliott, who was 22 at the time, fatally shot O'Connor when he opened fire on SWAT officers through a closed front door.
Elliot, Sears and two others – Bilal Mitchell, Khalif Sears, and Sherman Easterling – were later charged with murder, drug, and weapons crimes.
An indictment alleged that the four suspects were members of a violent Northeast Philadelphia drug trafficking group known as "1700 Scattergood."
Hassan was being sought in connection to a 2019 homicide and another non-fatal shooting, both of which he was later charged with.
What they're saying:
O'Connor, husband and father of three, was a 23-year veteran of the Philadelphia Police Department and spent 15 of those years with SWAT.
The COVID pandemic delayed O'Connor's funeral until May, when he was laid to rest during a private funeral mass at Our Lady of Calvary in Northeast Philadelphia.
Jimmy O'Connor, Sgt. O’Connor’s son and fellow member of the Philadelphia Police Department, spoke at his father's funeral and described the pain his family felt from his loss.
"The last eight weeks have been extremely difficult to say the least, you cannot imagine the pain that our family has experienced," he said. "This is not the way we wanted to say goodbye to my father."
The Philadelphia Police Department posthumously promoted O'Connor from Corporal to Sergeant.