PHILADELPHIA — The Philadelphia police officer who fatally shot a 12-year-old boy in the back last week will be fired, Commissioner Danielle Outlaw said Tuesday.
Outlaw said the officer will be suspended for 30 days with intent to dismiss, the process by which officers are typically removed from the force.
She declined to identify the officer, citing potential threats to his safety. But police sources with direct knowledge of the investigation said the officer was Edsaul Mendoza, a five-year veteran assigned to a task force in South Philadelphia. Attempts to reach him for comment Tuesday were unsuccessful, and the police officers’ union representing him declined to comment.
Outlaw declined to specify how Mendoza had violated departmental guidelines, except to say: “It was clear that the use-of-force policy was violated.” She said evidence showed it was “certain” that Mendoza — whom she referred to only as “officer number 1″ — was the one who fired the shot that struck and killed Thomas “TJ” Siderio after Siderio had fired a shot into an unmarked police car and taken off running.
And while she declined to provide many details on what she called an ongoing investigation, she said the shooting was “a sickening and saddening situation all around.”
“It’s tragic that we had one of our own go against everything that we say we are,” she said.
The update came a week after Siderio was fatally shot by officers near 18th and Barbara Streets in South Philadelphia. Police have said four plainclothes officers were in an unmarked car around 7:20 p.m. on March 1, staking out the area after seeing a social media post suggesting a teen there had been carrying a gun.
The officers were Mendoza, Kwaku Sarpong, Robert Cucinelli and Alexander Camacho, according to police records obtained by The Inquirer. Outlaw on Tuesday declined to confirm their identities, citing what she said were threats to their safety.
Police have said that as the officers drove toward TJ and a 17-year-old, who were on bicycles, the officers turned on their flashing lights, then heard gunfire. Outlaw said preliminary evidence showed Siderio fired the shot into the car, which shattered a rear window and left Camacho with injuries in both eyes by shards of glass.
Mendoza and Sarpong then got out of the car, took chase and fired shots at TJ, who was fatally struck in the upper back by a bullet that exited through his chest, police said.
The mother of the 17-year-old — who was not charged — said her son’s account conflicted with how police described the event. She said her son told her the officers did not turn on their flashing lights or identify themselves as police officers before shots were fired.
Outlaw, however, said police have evidence that the lights were on before a shot was fired into the car. She did not specify what that evidence was.
Police sources told The Inquirer last week that investigators were examining whether TJ had tossed his gun before the officers fired the last two shots, one of which was fatal. Outlaw declined to offer specifics about where the boy’s gun was at the time he was shot.
Police said they recovered a 9mm semiautomatic handgun, which they said TJ had been carrying. It was equipped with a laser and loaded with one round in the chamber and five rounds in the magazine, police said.
Police Department policy says officers are not justified in using deadly force solely if a suspect resists arrest or attempts to escape. Other factors are supposed to be taken into consideration, such as whether a suspect was armed, or posed an immediate threat to an officer. Officers should not shoot at a fleeing suspect “who presents no immediate threat of death or serious bodily injury,” the policy states.
The District Attorney’s Office is also probing the shooting for potential criminal charges. In a statement Tuesday, DA Larry Krasner called the case “factually complex and deeply troubling,” but declined to comment further on the ongoing investigation.
The Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 5 is representing the four officers involved in the incident, a spokesperson said Tuesday. But the union declined to comment on Outlaw’s decision.
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Staff writers Barbara Laker, David Gambacorta, and news researcher Ryan W. Briggs contributed to this report.
