A man is dead after being shot in the stomach by a Philadelphia police officer outside a SEPTA transportation center in Northeast Philadelphia, officials say.
The shooting happened just after 5 p.m. in an employee parking lot attached to the Frankford Transportation Center along the 1500 block of Pratt Street.
Philadelphia police said officers responded to a call of a man chasing a SEPTA employee through the lot. They said the man had a box cutter.
Officers demanded the man drop the box cutter several times, police said. When he did not and then charged at police, an officer fired one shot, which hit the man in the stomach.
The man was rushed to Jefferson Torresdale Hospital's trauma center where he died from his injuries, police said.
A box cutter could be seen on the ground near a pool of blood and a spent shell casing in the parking lot.
Local
Breaking news and the stories that matter to your neighborhood.
The man has not yet been identified. The investigation is ongoing.
The officer-involved shooting comes hours after a string of shootings left 12 people hurt or killed, including an off-duty police officer. That officer was shot early Friday inside a CVS pharmacy in South Philadelphia while struggling with an armed-man in mental distress.
Mayor Jim Kenney voiced frustration Friday morning over the scourge of gun violence in the city saying access to the deadly weapons needs to be restricted.
"I get criticized when I say there’s too many guns in our society - there’s too many guns in our society," a masked Kenney said. "We're doing our best to get our arms around the problem and get our officers in the right place at the right time."
There are additional resources for people or communities that have endured gun violence. Further information can be found here.
