Watchdog Group and Neighborhood Season Ticket Holders are Calling on the City to Release Surveillance Footage.
As reported by the Philadelphia Inquirer:
A witness to the shooting in Fairhill Friday that left 28-year-old Alexander Spencer dead and a police officer shot said that officers stopped and searched them without provocation before gunfire rang out, then an officer shot Spencer in the back during a chaotic scuffle.
The man, whose account was shared with The Inquirer on the condition that he remain anonymous due to fear of retribution, said he and Spencer were playing virtual gambling games Friday inside Jennifer Tavern, a beer store and deli, when two officers entered and asked them to lift their shirts.
“They came back straight toward us and started picking at us, like, ‘You don’t have any guns, right?’” the witness said in an interview with Terence Jones, a former Philadelphia police officer who’s now an activist.
Jones provided audio of the interview to The Inquirer with permission from the witness, and four people corroborated that the man was at the scene Friday and was depicted in another witness’ video standing behind Spencer and the two officers.
The witness said he and Spencer complied and showed their waistbands. As they tried to leave, he said, the officers grabbed Spencer and attempted to search his jacket, initiating a struggle that ended on the ground.
One shot went off — the witness said he couldn’t see from where — and hit an officer. Then the other officer shot Spencer in the back while he was on the floor, the witness said.
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