The shooting happened around 12:30 Tuesday morning in the 600 block of Thayer Street.
Police were investigating another police involved shooting from Monday afternoon on nearby N. D Street when they heard gun shots. They ordered a man with a weapon to put down the gun. Instead, he shot at police and ran off.
Police chased him and returned fire, hitting the suspect in the stomach. The man was rushed to the hospital in critical condition.
No officers were hurt.
In Monday afternoon's incident, surveillance video obtained exclusively by Action News shows the suspect walking down North D Street right around 4:00pm. When he crosses the road, a squad car pulled up alongside of him. Not long after the suspect spotted the police car, he pulled out a 32-caliber Beretta and opened fire, striking the cruiser twice.
"Once in the driver door and once in the driver side rear door, almost hitting the officer in the head. The officer is very lucky to be alive," Philadelphia Police Chief Inspector Scott Small said.
The female officer, a 9-year veteran of the force, returned fire striking the suspect twice - grazing his head with one shot and the other hitting him in the chest.
It all happened right in front of Charles Schoffler's home. He tells us, "First I heard three shots, then she drew her gun, she shot, and I look and said 'he's down,'"
Investigators believe the suspect was behind an attempted robbery and shooting a short time earlier on the 500 block East Hart Lane. Police responded to that scene where they found a 37-year-old woman shot in the stomach.
The officer slowed down as she approached the 27-year-old suspect on D Street because he matched the description of the gunman given by witnesses of the East Hart Lane shooting. Action News has learned that the shell casings left behind on D Street match those found on East Hart Lane.
Both the robbery victim and the suspect are at Temple University Hospital in critical condition. Charles Schoffler says he can't help but wonder if he'll ever feel safe again in his own neighborhood. "You just have to take care of one another around here."
