Philadelphia Police Officers Shot And Killed 12-Year-Old Boy

Philadelphia police officers shot and killed a 12-year-old boy as he ran away reportedly after firing into the officers’ vehicle.

Thomas Siderio was shot in his back while he was armed with what authorities said was a stolen 9mm semiautomatic gun.

The child was pronounced dead minutes after the shooting that happened on the sidewalk of Barbara Street in South Philadelphia on Tuesday, March 1.

The Philadelphia Police Department released a statement Wednesday explaining the details of the tragedy.

At 7:24 p.m. on Tuesday, four plainclothes officers were stationed in an unmarked car conducting an ongoing gun investigation when they spotted two boys on bicycles, the PPD said.

One of the boys, a 17-year-old, was identified as a suspect wanted for questioning in a gun investigation, the department said.

The officers drove toward the pair and turned on the vehicle’s lights. At that point, the officers heard gunfire and glass shattering from the rear passenger window, police said.

"The officer that was positioned in the rear passenger seat he was stuck by shards of glass in his face and in his eyes," Philadelphia Police Deputy Commissioner Ben Naish said.

The officer sitting in the rear driver's side seat exited the vehicle and fired at Siderio, who was holding a gun and running away, Naish said, adding he could not definitively ascertain whether the child was the one who opened fire at the officers.

"I can't be definitive about exactly everything at this point, but I can be definitive that a shot was fired into the police vehicle and a gun was recovered," Naish said.

One of the officers chased the boy and fired two shots, fatally striking him once in the upper right side of his back, with the bullet coming out through the front left side of his chest, the deputy commissioner added.

It remains unclear whether the officer told the boy to stop or to drop the gun before firing fatal shots at him.

"While indications from the medical examiner is that the bullet entered into [Thomas’] back, that doesn’t mean that he was fleeing and that there was not a gun being pointed towards or in the vicinity of the officer," Naish said.

"The angle of the projectile entering the young man is indicative that he was not fired [on] directly behind him. But his body could have been turning."

The child was taken to Penn Presbyterian Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead at 7:29 PM, the police department said.

The 17-year-old wanted for questioning in the gun investigation was released pending further investigation.

The teen's mother, who didn't want to be identified, said the boys didn't know they were being approached by police.

"They're saying the cop car turned their lights on, that never happened," the woman told NBC10. "So they didn't make themselves known as police officers. So the two kids assumed it was somebody from another neighborhood so the one kid shot at the car."

"I don’t understand these kids with these guns. Where are they getting them from?" neighbor Maureen Flocco said. "Everything nowadays, everything involves a weapon. You don’t know what anyone has on them. There’s no respect and there’s no honor anymore."

Commissioner Danielle Outlaw addressed the shooting in a statement.

"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."

The four officers involved in the incident were asked to go on administrative leave pending the outcome of a detailed investigation.

"I assure the public that a fair and thorough investigation will be conducted by our Internal Affairs Division. Per protocol, these officers have been placed on administrative duty pending the outcome of the investigation," Outlaw said.

Siderio was a seventh-grader at Sharswood Elementary School in South Philadelphia.