Philadelphia police fatally shoot boy, 12, after bullet hits patrol car

PHILADELPHIA — A 12-year-old boy was fatally shot by a Philadelphia plainclothes officer on Tuesday night, moments after a bullet was fired into a police vehicle, authorities said.

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The boy, identified as Thomas Siderio Jr., was taken to an area hospital and was pronounced dead at 7:29 p.m. EST, WTXF-TV reported.

Siderio was in the seventh grade at George W. Sharswood Elementary School in South Philadelphia, according to a spokesperson for the School District.

According to a police statement released Wednesday, four plainclothes officers were in an unmarked car at about 7:24 p.m. EST in the South Philadelphia neighborhood of the city when they saw two young males standing on a street corner and one appeared to be holding a handgun.

Police said one of the men was wanted for questioning in connection with social media posts about a stolen gun, WPVI-TV reported. When officers activated their emergency lights on their unmarked vehicle, they said they heard gunfire and a bullet came through the back passenger side window, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported.

One of the officers, whose name has not been released, shot twice at Siderio as the boy ran away, striking him in the upper right side of his back and exiting through the left side of his chest, WCAU-TV reported, citing the police department’s news release.

One of the four officers in the car was struck by shattered glass in the face and eye, the Inquirer reported. He was treated and released.

The shooting was captured on a doorbell camera, WPVI reported. Police said Siderio was in possession of a 9 mm Taurus semi-automatic handgun equipped with a laser that had been reported stolen earlier in the day, according to the television station. The gun was recovered at the scene and had one round in its chamber and five in the magazine, according to police.

It is unclear whether the bullet fired into the police vehicle came from the gun Siderio allegedly had in his possession, Deputy Commissioner Benjamin Naish told reporters.

“While the indications from the medical examiner are that the bullet entered into his back, that does not mean he was fleeing or that there was not a gun being pointed toward or in the vicinity of the officer,” Naish said. “It doesn’t mean that he wasn’t continuing to be a threat to the officer.”

The other person at the scene, a 17-year-old who has not been identified, was briefly detained and then released, the Inquirer reported.

The officers involved in the shooting were placed on administrative leave pending the outcome of the investigation, WPVI reported.

“A young child with a gun in their hand purposely fired a weapon at our officers,” Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw said in a written statement. “However, the life of a young man was cut tragically short, and we should all be questioning how we as a society have failed him and so many other young people like him.”

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