A police officer responding to a call Saturday night in North Philadelphia saw a "red laser dot" on his shirt and moments later, he and his partner were under fire, according to a police department spokesman.
Neither officer was struck in the gunfire that broke out at 13th and York streets shortly after 10 p.m., and they apparently did not strike two possible gunmen as they fled, police said.
The officer who noticed the red dot on his shirt discharged six shots in their direction after he and his partner fell to the ground when they heard the gunshots, police said.
Both suspected gunmen fled west on York Street, and a firearm magazine containing six .38-caliber cartridges was recovered in a driveway in the 2300 block of North 13th Street, police said.
The incident occurred as the officers were standing on the passenger side of a vehicle parking in the 2300 block. The officers were talking with a person inside the car who had called about the theft of his cell phone.
The details, according to police spokesman Capt. Sekou Kinebrew, are from an investigation still in "the early stages."
