Philly police shooting suspect was driving unregistered car, sources say

The man who shot a Philadelphia police officer in Kensington over the weekend spent about 30 minutes with police in what began as a routine traffic stop before officers found a gun holster near the driver’s seat of his car and he took off running and opened fire, Commissioner Kevin Bethel said Monday.

Ramon Rodriguez Vazquez, 36, had been pulled over by officers for lacking proper registration and a driver’s license while driving a Toyota sedan on the 3500 block of F Street. The encounter was initially unremarkable, Bethel said. Vazquez spoke to the officers , made a phone call, and three people came to the scene in an attempt to persuade police officers not to have his car hauled away.

“It was just a normal stop,” Bethel said.

But as officers conducted a final search of Vazquez’s car before having it hoisted onto a flatbed, one of them discovered the holster. And as the officers prepared to confront Vazquez about it, said Deputy Commissioner Frank Vanore, Vazquez sprinted away.

Within seconds, Vanore said, Vazquez turned and started shooting with a gun he’d been carrying in his waistband, striking one of the officers in the neck. Vazquez then tried to take refuge in a nearby garage but was turned away, and also tried to carjack a minivan, Vanore said. He ultimately ran to a house where a resident was sitting on the porch, then threatened the man at gunpoint and attempted to barricade himself inside a bedroom.

SWAT officers took Vazquez into custody at that house Saturday night, Vanore said. Vazquez later confessed to shooting at the officers, according to sources briefed on the case, saying he did so because he didn’t want to go to jail.

Those details give new clarity to an incident that left the officer hospitalized and critically wounded. Police have declined to identify the officer — a 31-year-old assigned to the 25th District, with six years on the force — saying his family does not want his name released, and that the department only releases the names of an injured officer if the officer grants permission. Bethel said Monday that the officer is on a respirator and “in a battle” for his life.

Vazquez, meanwhile, was arraigned early Monday on charges including attempted murder and aggravated assault of an officer, illegal gun possession, evading arrest, burglary, and kidnapping. He remained in jail on $12.5 million bail, court records show. He is being represented by the Defender Association of Philadelphia, which did not respond to a request for comment.

Assistant District Attorney Robert Wainwright said Vazquez committed “an absolutely despicable, cowardly act.”

Officials said much of the case was captured on video, including bodycams worn by the officers. And surveillance video obtained by The Inquirer showed a man who resembles Vazquez running along nearby Kingston Street several times, including after the shooting, when he appears to be holding a gun in his hand.

Bethel said it was confounding and “senseless” that Vazquez decided to flee and start firing after an extended, and relatively calm, interaction with police.

Athough Vazquez has no previous arrests in Pennsylvania, he was arrested in Puerto Rico in 2011 for allegedly shooting at two police officers there.

According to an account in Periódico Impacto Noreste, a news magazine, Vazquez, then 21, and another man, 24-year-old José M. Serrano Ares, stole an SUV at gunpoint, then fired shots at two responding officers. Both were charged with crimes including attempted murder and firearms violations, but it was not immediately clear what happened with the case, or whether Vazquez was ultimately convicted of the crime.

What happened in the shooting?

Saturday’s car stop happened shortly after 7:15 p.m., according to Vanore, after officers noticed the paper tag and lack of registration on Vazquez’s sedan.

Once the officers pulled Vazquez over and discovered he was also driving without a license, they called the Parking Authority to have a tow truck sent to the scene. The tow driver arrived quickly, and Vazquez made a phone call seeking help from relatives, Vanore said. Sources said Vazquez’s sister, brother-in-law, and girlfriend all arrived and tried to persuade police not to seize the car.

Still, for the next half-hour the encounter proceeded without incident, according to Vanore. Vazquez and the three others had conversations with the police in Spanish, and were allowed to start taking items from the car before it was to be put on the tow truck. But once an officer noticed the holster, Vanore said, Vazquez ran and fired three shots from a gun in his waistband “without provocation.”

The officer who was shot took a bullet to the neck and quickly fell to the ground, police said. His partner fired one shot in return, police said, but did not hit Vazquez.

The partner and the tow truck driver then put the officer into a patrol car, and the partner drove him to Temple University Hospital, Vanore said.

Vazquez, meanwhile, started running through the neighborhood, seeking a place to hide. He took off his shirt before trying to get into a garage on G Street, Vanore said, then unsuccessfully tried to carjack a minivan on Tioga Street.

About 15 minutes after the gunfire, Vanore said, Vazquez ran onto the 800 block of E. Schiller Street, where he saw a man in his 20s having a drink in front of his house.

Vazquez forced the man inside at gunpoint, Vanore said. Sources familiar with the investigation said Vazquez at one point took the man’s phone and tried to buy plane tickets to leave the country.

At some point, however, Vazquez let the man leave. The man then went outside and reported the ordeal to police, and SWAT officers came to the house and took Vazquez into custody, Vanore said.

How were neighbors reacting?

Neighbors expressed a variety of emotions Monday about the crime and its aftermath.

Robert Levine, the owner of an industrial warehouse on F Street, said it “doesn’t feel good” knowing that the shooting of a police officer took place just outside of his business.

”This is nothing unusual for what goes on in this setting,” Levine said Monday outside of his warehouse, steps from the crime scene. “I see shootings all the time” in Kensington, he said. “This time, it was by me.”

A resident of Kingston Street, who asked not to be identified for fear of retaliation, said he heard the gunshots Saturday and captured some surveillance footage of Vazquez running away from the scene. The man said he believes the neighborhood has grown less safe recently, but that he and his wife stay in the city because their daughter is a Philadelphia police officer — and is a friend of the officer who was wounded on Saturday night.

“Here it’s not safe. We need to live with cameras, and [that] permits [us] to feel safe,” the man said. “You are a prisoner in your own house.”

A neighbor of Vazquez’s, who also asked not to be identified for fear of retaliation, described him as a “real nice dude” who cared for the block and the people who lived there. After the incident, he said, he saw Vazquez’s girlfriend return to clean up what was left after police had searched their house.

”She fell in my arms and started crying, you could feel the pain,” the neighbor said.

Attempts to reach Vazquez’s relatives on Monday were unsuccessful.

The Police Department, meanwhile, said relatives of the officer had asked for privacy while they sought to support him at the hospital.

Vazquez is due in court in early July for a preliminary hearing. Authorities said they did not anticipate charging others alongside him, but that the investigation of the incident remains ongoing.