Thomas Siderio Jr, 12, dies after being ‘shot in the back by cops while running away’ after shots fired at patrol car
A 12-YEAR-old boy has died after being shot in the back by a plainclothes officer, police have confirmed.
Thomas Siderio Jr was killed on Tuesday evening in Philadelphia while running away from cops, according to local reports.
He was fatally shot moments after officers said a bullet was fired into an unmarked car, police said.
Siderio Jr was taken to Penn Presbyterian Medical Center where he was pronounced dead a few minutes after the shooting.
One of the four officers in the car was struck by shattered glass in the face and eye, and was treated and released, police said.
In a statement Wednesday, police said four officers had been responding to social media posts involving a gun when the fatal shooting occurred.
The officers said they saw two young males on a corner — one of whom appeared to be carrying a handgun.
They said they recognized the older one as wanted for questioning in that firearms investigation.
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Officers then activated the car’s emergency red and blue lights before a gunshot and the rear passenger window shattering, police said.
A nearby doorbell camera picks up five shots.
Deputy Commissioner Benjamin Naish said the officers very easily could have been killed or seriously injured.
Police said two officers got out of the driver’s side of the car and fired at the fleeing youth, who officers said was holding a gun.
One of the officers continued to chase Siderio down the street, firing two more times and striking the boy once in the upper right back area.
The bullet exited through his chest, police said.
The other youth, a 17-year-old male who was not named, was taken into custody in the firearms case but was later released, police said.
Naish said officers recovered a 9mm semiautomatic handgun equipped with a laser that had been reported stolen.
He said the gun had one bullet in the chamber and five more in the clip.
Naish said police could not definitively say Wednesday that Siderio had shot into the police vehicle, or whether he had pointed the weapon at officers as he fled.
Police also did not say whether the recovered gun was part of the initial investigation.
“While the indications from the medical examiner is 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.
"It doesn’t mean that he wasn’t continuing to be a threat to the officer,” Naish said.
He said ballistics evidence had been gathered and police were scouring the area for surveillance footage as part of the investigation.
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None of the plainclothes officers was wearing a body camera, he said.
The two officers who fired their weapons were placed on administrative leave pending an investigation.
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