Family identifies man who was shot, killed by officer in Mayfair

MAYFAIR (WPVI) -- We now know the identity of the man who was shot and killed in an altercation with Philadelphia police early Monday in the Mayfair section of the city.

Family members identify the deceased as 26-year-old Brandon Tate Brown of North Philadelphia. Police say Brown was reaching for a handgun when an officer opened fire.

It happened around 2:45 a.m. Monday during a traffic stop on the 6700 block of Frankford Avenue.

Police tell Action News two uniformed officers pulled over a white Dodge Charger for driving without headlights.

The sedan was a rented vehicle with Florida tags.

Police say officers approached and saw a handgun in the center console. The officers asked Brown to get out of the car and that's when there was a struggle.

Brown allegedly tried to get back into the Dodge and get the gun, police say, when one of the officers opened fire, striking him in the head.

Medics treated Brown at the scene, but were unable to revive him. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

Philadelphia Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey explains, "Apparently it started with a traffic stop, and the officers were involved in some kind of struggle and wound up with the shooting of the suspect. There was a gun recovered from the vehicle that the suspect was in."

Police Capt. George Fuchs says, "We do have a gun that was actually found in the suspect's car... The butt was totally visible, the butt of the gun, was in the console."

Police say Brown's 22 caliber gun had eight live rounds and was reported stolen back in July, 2013.

Brown, police say, served five and a half years in prison in connection with two arrests for attempted murder, and that he was on parole and on probation until 2017.

Action News spoke with Brown's family and they say they're convinced he was doing nothing wrong when he was stopped by police and they believe the killing was unjustified.

The family says he was driving a rental car owned by the Bucks County company where he was employed.

Brown's mother, Tanya Dickerson, tells us, "What I want to know is, what happened? And why couldn't you disable him? Why are you trained to kill instead of disable?"

Leon Goodwin, Brown's stepfather, says, "I don't want them to just sweep it under the rug. I don't want the cops to get away with this, because it's wrong. They took my son, and I want somebody to pay for it."

Brown's family says they fear the police probe will be a whitewash. Police deny that, saying their probe will be thorough and accurate.

The officer who fired on the suspect was being interviewed by investigators from Philadelphia Police Internal Affairs.

A number of witnesses were also being interviewed.

One officer was transported by medics to the hospital for "observation due to the incident," police said.