Havertown Man Shot Dead By Philly Police

The Philadelphia Police Department confirmed to the Haverford-Havertown Patch early Friday evening that 26-year-old Thomas Hennelly of Havertown was shot and killed by its department’s police officer.

While Philadelphia Police Department spokesman Lt. Ray Evers left for the day when Patch called, he did confirm to The Philadelphia Inquirer that Hennelly was shot by a Philadelphia police officer after he allegedly threaten the officer’s life.

The incident happened around 10:30 a.m. on Thursday when Hennelly allegedly drove a blue pickup truck on Broad Street near Oxford when the vehicle jumped a curb and into a parking lot where it struck parked cars and a Temple University student, Evers told the newspaper. The student was treated for an ankle injury at the university’s hospital.  

"It was deliberate what he was doing. It definitely wasn't an accident," Evers was quoted as saying.

A male police officer who was near by approached Hennelly’s pickup truck when he allegedly struck the officer’s cruiser, where the officer fired two to three shots that hit the truck but missed the driver, Evers explained to the newspaper.

“The driver fled to 20th Street near Master, where he abandoned his truck on the sidewalk. He then ran through two vacant lots to the rear of a beer distributor, where he was cornered by a female officer. The man allegedly reached for an object and threatened the officer by yelling, ‘Step back, or I'm going to blow your brains out!’ Evers said,” the newspaper reported.

Evers stated that the female police officer took this as a threat and fired a couple of times at Hennelly, where he was struck twice—once in the upper left shoulder and once in the leg.

The female police officer did not see Hennelly—of the 800 block of Merion Avenue— with a gun and the police believe that he might have tossed it when he was fleeing before he was shot, Evers said to the newspaper, adding that a hypodermic needle was found in the front seat of the pickup truck.

He was pronounced dead at 11 a.m. at Hahnemann University Hospital, Evers stated to the newspaper.

The newspaper attributed Police Commissioner Charles H. Ramsey as saying the shooting was justified.  Internal Affairs is investigating the shooting.