(CBS News) — A suspect is in custody in Philadelphia after an hours-long standoff and shootout that left six officers shot and another injured in a related vehicle crash, authorities said. Two officers and three other people who had been trapped in the building with the shooter were freed after several hours.
The suspect was identified as Maurice Hill, 36.
CBS Philadelphia says Hill surrendered, shortly after midnight local time.
Hill wasn’t injured in the shootout, lawyer Shaka Johnson told the station,
Johnson said Hill called him to the scene of the standoff while he was barricaded inside. “Maurice called me in a panic, obviously,” Johnson told CBS Philadelphia. “He did not want this to end violently and he really was sort of taking an opportunity to speak his peace. I told him, ‘You gotta surrender, man.”‘
Charges haven’t been announced.
CBS News has learned Hill has a long criminal history.
Police had initially responded around 5 p.m. on a narcotics warrant and things “went awry almost immediately,” Commissioner Richard Ross said.
The commissioner said at a nighttime press conference that police were trying to communicate with a “single male” suspect. Police spokesperson Eric Gripp tweeted earlier that police are “imploring him to surrender and avoid further injuries.”
Gripp tweeted that children from nearby day care centers were evacuated.
Gripp said the officers were transported to local hospitals with non life-threatening injuries. Philadelphia police said at 11 p.m. that all the officers who were shot had been released from the hospital. One officer who was injured in a vehicle crash related to the incident remained in the hospital.
Four women who were escorted from the Nicetown-Tioga neighborhood told CBS Philadelphia they were on the second floor of the building with the suspect. “I thank God for these cops,” one woman said.
Read more at CBS News.
