A suspected gunman chose the wrong place and wrong time to shoot a man to death late Wednesday in Philadelphia, police said.
A pair of police officers patrolling about 10 p.m. near the scene of the shooting, at Germantown Avenue and Cambria Street in North Philadelphia, heard the gunfire and rushed to the scene. There, they found not only the 46-year-old victim lying on the ground bleeding heavily, but, a police commander said, they also spotted the suspect running down Cambria Street, the gun still in his hand. Other responding officers chased the suspect for a few blocks and eventually caught up with him.
"Plainclothes officers chased him to 11th and Cambria and he threw the gun into some bushes," Chief Inspector Scott Small told NBC10. "Officers made the apprehension and recovered a revolver-type handgun thrown in the bushes."
Other officers tended to the man wounded in the shooting as their comrades made the arrest, Small said. They took him to nearby Temple University Hospital, but his wounds were too severe, and Small said he was pronounced dead there at 10:26 p.m. Police said they don't yet know why the gunman shot the man.
Small said investigators found cameras on both a Philadelphia Housing Authority building and a business near the intersection where the shooting occurred. Both appear to be pointed in the direction of where the shooting occurred and where the victim collapsed, he said.
The suspected gunman arrested in the shooting, identified only as a 23-year-old man, went to the Homicide Unit for questioning. Police didn't yet know what motivated the shooting late Wednesday.
Small said officers catching a homicide suspect nearly in the act as they did in this case is rare.
Local
Breaking news and the stories that matter to your neighborhood.
"The officers were in the right place at the right time ... to hear shots and respond so quickly that they were not only able to see the suspect running from the scene, but able to make the apprehension," he said. "Things fell into place for 25th District police for this shooting, and they did a good job."
