PHILADELPHIA - Philadelphia police are releasing new details about a shooting involving an off-duty police officer in Northeast Philadelphia that left a man dead.
It happened around 11:30 p.m. at the intersection of Willits and Holme Avenue.
Police say officers responded to the scene after they received call for a shooting and an officer in need of assistance.
Following a preliminary investigation, police say the off-duty detective and another motorist had stopped their vehicles in the road. While stopped, the other motorist got out of his vehicle and approached the detective’s personal vehicle – a Subaru sedan.
The detective discharged a personally owned firearm multiple times from the driver’s seat of his vehicle, striking the other motorist.
The motorist, later identified as a 54-year-old man, was transported to Jefferson-Torresdale Hospital by paramedics where he was later pronounced dead.
The deadly shooting remains under investigation with the department’s Officer Involved Shooting Unit, Internal Affairs, and the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office.
Sources had previously indicated to FOX 29 that the shooting may have been the result of an attempted carjacking. Philadelphia police say they are still investigating the circumstances surrounding the shooting.
The off-duty detective has been identified only as a 43-year-old man who is a 14-year veteran of the force. He is assigned to the Homicide Unit. He has been placed on administrative leave pending the outcome of the investigation.