Black Man Arrested For Killing Philadelphia Police Officer Says He Targeted Victim For Being White: REPORT
A black man named Eric Lewis allegedly shot and killed a Philadelphia police officer and injured another because they were white on Saturday, a report shows.
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The now-deceased officer, Shane Seiber, and his partner had arrived at a West Philadelphia home in response to a neighbor’s 12:50 a.m. 911 call regarding a man spotted with a gun when Lewis walked up behind the officers, according to The Philadelphia Inquirer. (RELATED: DHS Raids Ilhan Omar’s Home Amid Criminal Investigation)
The officers asked Lewis if he lived in the house, but were met with hostility as Lewis began yelling and acting aggressively. Then, as the officers moved to check if Lewis was carrying a firearm, the man allegedly shot the officers, a law enforcement source told the Inquirer.
The source said that Lewis had continued to shoot the officers even after they had already been wounded, as the man continued to yell at them, saying that he had told them to get off his porch.
Minutes later, another pair of officers arrived to find Seiber and the other officer, an unnamed 33-year-old, lying unconscious on the ground as they bled from their wounds.
Seiber, who had 10 years of service as an officer, died at the age of 40 hours later after having been shot three times. He left behind his wife, a seven-year-old son and a three-year-old daughter, the Inquirer reported.
Lewis then allegedly began a nearly hour-long standoff as he continued to shoot at officers from a position in a dark alley behind the home. After his eventual arrest, Lewis blamed the officers for having gone to his porch, The Inquirer reported, citing an arrest report based on interviews with nine officers.
Lewis said that he had been across the street when he saw the officers arrive and that he had shot them after they had put their hands on him. He said that he had only done so because they were white, the report said.
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While speaking to a black female police officer at the hospital, Lewis said that “if it was you that responded we would have just had a conversation,” noting that the officers had guns and that he had “every right to defend [himself].”
A conservative commentator, Greg Price, shared a portion of the report, saying, “[Lewis] stated if the cops were black he would not have shot him… He was making racist remarks to the white police officers, saying he makes more money than them.”
At the hospital, Lewis also said that “Because they were white, they automatically grabbed me,” according to the report posted to social media by Price.
Lewis has been charged with murder and 10 counts of attempted murder for his alleged offenses against the wounded officer and the nine officers who were shot at while trying to detain Lewis. He was also charged with disarming a law enforcement officer and carrying a firearm without a license, the report said.
Lewis, who is being held without bail, worked with the city’s Water Department and was convicted in 2012 for carrying a firearm in public but had no felony convictions that would have prevented him from legally owning a gun, according to the Inquirer.
The city’s police commissioner, Kevin Bethel, said that Seiber had “fought valiantly” and asked the community to keep him and his family in their prayers.
On Saturday, Democrat Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro ordered flags at half-mast in honor of Seiber, adding that the state’s law enforcement officers “put their lives on the line every day, running towards danger to keep their fellow Pennsylvanians safe, not knowing if they will return home.”
“We owe them our deepest gratitude,” he added.
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