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Philadelphia police have confirmed that officers fatally shot a 12-year-old boy after he allegedly fired a gun at them on Tuesday night.
The police said in a statement that they were conducting surveillance for a firearms investigation in South Philadelphia and spotted two males in the area, one of whom was wanted for questioning in the investigation. When officers approached and turned their emergency lights on, they claimed the two individuals fired on them and they shot back, hitting the 12-year-old. The child died shortly afterward. The incident follows a trend of children dying in police shootings in recent years.
The officers were in plainclothes and in an unmarked car that night and the two boys—the victim and a 17-year-old—allegedly did not shoot until the officers turned their car's red and blue lights on. One of the shots went through the police car's window, hitting an officer's face with shards of glass then going through the passenger seat's headrest, according to the statement
At that point, the officers said they got out of the car and fired at the 12-year-old, who was holding a gun.The child was holding a 9MM semi-automatic handgun equipped with a laser, which had previously been reported stolen, according to police.
The 17-year-old has not yet been identified. He was detained for a period, then released. In a statement, Philadelphia Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw said the department's Internal Affairs Division is investigating the shooting and the officers involved have been placed on administrative duty "pending the outcome of the investigation."
"Last night, a young child with a gun in their hand purposely fired a weapon at our officers and by miracle, none of the officers suffered life threatening injuries," Outlaw said. "However, the life of a young man was cut tragically short, and we should all be questioning how we as a society have failed him and so many other young people like him. I ask that our community come together and be the community-the village-that we were intended to be and that our children need."
According to data from The Washington Post, there have been more than 300 cases of police killing people under the age of 19 since 2015.
A study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America journal showed police violence was especially prevalent for young men. The study showed about 52 out of every 100,000 American men and boys were killed by police between 2013 and 2018, compared to only 3 out of every 100,000 women.
The data from the Post also showed Black and Hispanic Americans were most likely to be the victims of police killings between 2015 and this year. Black Americans were killed at a rate of 38 for every million in the population, more than double the rate of white Americans, at 15 per million. Hispanic Americans' rate was nearly double the white Americans' rate at 28 per million.
Update 03/02/22, 3:30 p.m. ET: This article was updated with statistics on police violence.
Update 03/02/22, 2:25 p.m. ET: This article was updated to add more information.
