Police: Man wielding machete shot by U.S. Marshal near Wissinoming Park
PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) -- A machete-wielding man was shot by a U.S. Marshal on Wednesday morning.
It happened around 8:15 a.m. on the 5900 block of Charles Street in the area of Wissinoming Park.
Police said Marshals attempted to use their cars to box in a man driving a black Nissan at the corner of Charles and Van Kirk streets.
They were trying to stop a man they had been watching, but police said he exited his car armed with a machete and started to run.
According to the Abington Township Police Department, authorities had been tracking 31-year-old Joseph E. Ankrah after an incident on May 13. Police say an officer encountered Ankrah who was wearing a ballistic vest and threatened the officer, telling him that the next time he saw him "it would be bloody."
It was learned that Ankrah had attempted to purchase an assault rifle and a handgun back in March but was denied. This prompted authorities to obtained an arrest waarant for terrorist threats.
On May 22, police say Ankrah was located but not before a U.S. Marshal was forced to open fire.
"Four or 5 gunshots, so I said 'My God!" said witness Wagner Martinez. "I told my kids to get inside the house."
Police said Ankrah ran down the alley parallel to Charles Street, and that he dropped the case the machete was in but kept the blade.
As a result, U.S. Marshals shot him once in the lower back.
Police said Ankrah continued down the alley, crossed over Charles Street and into Wissinoming Park.
Neighbor Earl Thornton was outside and said he saw the man running with the machete and the Marshals behind him.
"When I could see him come around the corner, I could see the blood on his chest, but I didn't realize until he came closer it was on the back, too," said Thornton.
Thornton said once the man crossed into the park he finally stopped and the Marshals we able to get him to surrender.
"They finally convinced him to put the weapon down," he said. "He dropped it and was still standing there and said come towards us and he started walking towards them... laid down on the sidewalk."
Officials said officers transported Ankrah to Jefferson Torresdale Hospital with gunshot wounds to his right shoulder and upper left side of his back. He is listed in stable condition.
