Surveillance Video Shows Officer Crawling Out Of North Philadelphia Home As Gunfire Erupts Between Police, Suspect
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) – Home surveillance video shows the moments police officers began to take on gunfire while serving a narcotics warrant in the Nicetown-Tioga section of the city on Wednesday. One officer was seen crawling out of the front door during the shootout.
The gunfire led to a seven-hour-long standoff between police and an alleged gunman, 36-year-old Maurice Hill.
The incident began around 4:30 p.m. on Wednesday when police were serving a narcotics warrant on the 3700 block of 15th Street and the suspect opened fire. It is unclear if Hill was the intended target of the warrant at this time.
Surveillance video from a neighboring home shows an officer crawling out of the front door and falling down the steps of the home before being pulled to safety by another officer.
Other officers reportedly escaped through windows as well.
Six police officers were shot throughout the shootout that ended when Hill surrendered shortly after midnight.
All six police officers were released from the hospital Wednesday night. A seventh officer, who was injured in a car crash while responding to the scene on the 3700 block of North 15th Street, remains in the hospital. That officer's condition is not known.
Philadelphia Police Commissioner Richard Ross said that it was a miracle officers weren't killed during the incident.
WATCH: Moment Suspect Maurice Hill Surrenders To Philadelphia Police After Seven-Hour Standoff
CBS3 reports 30 officers discharged their weapons but Ross could not confirm that number as of Thursday morning.
Sources tell CBS3 the suspect was live-streaming some of the shootout while he barricaded himself inside the home. However, his attorney, Shaka Johnson, disputes those claims.
Ross could not confirm the reports of Hill live-streaming but he did say Hill was FaceTiming his girlfriend, and possibly other people, during the standoff.
Two officers, who were trapped on the second floor of the residence, were released, along with three hostages, while the gunman remained on the first floor.
Additionally, two women and two children were escorted by SWAT and Philadelphia Police from the scene. They told CBS3 that they were inside the home on the second floor at the time of the shootout and that police saved them.
Ross became personally involved in the situation when he found out there were two officers trapped on the second floor of the building.
After bringing a negotiator to the scene, Ross asked if they thought it would help for him to step in given his rank and they agreed he should try.
This was the first time Ross has been involved in the negotiations of a hostage situation and he made it clear that if no one else was in the house with Hill, he would not have been involved.
"And to be quite candid with you, if there were no one in that home with him, I wouldn't have been that close," Ross said. "But I just couldn't have my police officers trapped like that. I wouldn't have been able to live with myself from 200 feet away and someone needing to ask a critical question about a tactical injury and I'm not standing there close enough for them to respond."
