Police release video showing shooting of Alexander Spencer, officer in Philadelphia
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Philadelphia officials have released surveillance camera footage showing new angles of a police officer shooting and fatally wounding Alexander Spencer last week in a corner store in Fairhill. An officer was shot and injured in the same incident.
The Philadelphia Police Department and the city's district attorney held a press conference Tuesday to discuss the investigation so far, and to show the surveillance camera videos from a corner store on Mascher and Cambria Streets, where Spencer and a Philadelphia police officer were shot.
Police Commissioner Kevin Bethel said around 8:45 p.m. Friday, Jan. 26, officers went into the store for a security check of the property and to search for a suspect with an active warrant.
The video shows the officers approaching a row of gaming machines where Spencer was near. The officers appear to ask Spencer and another man to show them their waistbands - and then the officers back Spencer into the machines.
The two officers and Spencer then fall onto the floor in a struggle. Gunshots can be heard in the recorded audio.
The officers' body cameras were not recording the struggle, Bethel said.
Police identified the officer who fired his gun as Officer Raheem Hall. Authorities have yet to identify the officer who was shot.
Bethel was joined by Deputy Commissioner Frank Vanore and District Attorney Larry Krasner in the news conference.
Krasner said more information will come out when the investigation is completed - and said evidence is still being examined including medical records, the autopsy report, toxicology information, DNA and firearms examination details.
On Friday night, Bethel said the officer engaged with Spencer and one of them got in "a scuffle with that individual."
Vanore said Tuesday Spencer fired once toward the officers, striking one of them in the right thigh. The injured officer's partner then returned fire, striking Spencer.
"I know on the night of the shooting we thought the officer was shot two times because he had four wounds. We now know that he had a double perforating wound," Vanore said. "So he was down in a crouch during the struggle. His leg was bent, the bullet goes in his thigh, out his thigh, in the back of his calf, and out the front of his leg. So one bullet went through four times."
Spencer, 28, was rushed to Temple University Hospital, where he later died.
A social media video showed a portion of the shooting. In the video, two shots can be heard as police officers hold a man down on the floor. Police said the video is part of their investigation.
But Bethel said Tuesday that the video does not tell the full story.
"We acknowledge the concerns of the community and the anger that was sparked by a short video that was put online most recently," Bethel said. "The dangerous rumors that come from that, the untruths that come from that are difficult to deal with. And so we're working hard to disprove those rumors.... A small snippet of time does not take away the countless that are being put into this investigation."
The surveillance videos also show a man in the red hoodie, holding a smartphone in one hand possibly filming the incident, reach down and grab a gun before leaving the store. Police said that gun was Spencer's.
Police on Sunday identified the man in the red hoodie as 42-year-old Jose Quinones-Mendez, who they allege took the gun used in the shooting. The Philadelphia Fraternal Order of Police Lodge #5 is offering a $10,000 reward for information leading to Quinones-Mendez's arrest.
The wounded police officer was released from the hospital on Monday.
The injured officer's partner has been placed on administrative duty while the investigation is active.
