The Philadelphia Police Officer Jesse Hartnett remained hospitalized Sunday as doctors worked to repair nerve damage he suffered when a gunman ambushed and shot him Thursday night.
Hartnett, a five-year veteran, was in his patrol car at 60th and Spruce streets when police say Edward Archer, 30, walked up to the car and opened fire on him at point-blank range using a stolen police gun.
Hartnett, wounded three times in the arm, managed to jump out of the car and return fire, striking Archer.
Investigators later said that after Archer was apprehended, he confessed to shooting the officer "in the name of Islam." Archer was arraigned Saturday on four felonies and four misdemeanor charges, including attempted murder, aggravated assault, assault on a law-enforcement officer, reckless endangerment, illegal gun possession and related offenses.
Local and federal authorities on Sunday continued to delve into Archer's past to determine if he has any true ties to terrorism. Investigators said that so far, it appears that although the suspect pledged allegiance to the Islamic State militant group, they did not find any links to terrorism in his recent trips to Egypt and Saudi Arabia.
Hartnett's ambush shooting shook the Philadelphia Police Department and the city.
"This is absolutely one of the scariest things I've ever seen," Philadelphia Police Commissioner Richard Ross said of surveillance footage that captured Thursday night's near deadly encounter in West Philadelphia. "This could have easily been a police funeral."
During a news conference Friday afternoon, Ross said Archer's weapon was a police firearm stolen from a home in October 2013. The weapon was reported stolen through proper protocol, officials said.
The suspect fired about a dozen times, emptying the 9mm handgun, Ross said.
"I'm bleeding heavily!" Hartnett is heard shouting in chilling police-radio recordings of the shooting.
The 18th District officer was hit three times in the left arm. Archer was struck in the buttocks by Hartnett's return fire as he ran from the scene. He was apprehended a short distance away.
"This guy tried to execute the officer," Ross said. "I don't know how this officer survived."
Hartnett suffered a broken arm and nerve damage, Ross said. He underwent surgery shortly after the shooting. By Friday morning, he was out of surgery, talking and in "good spirits," but he has a long road ahead of him. Ross said the officer’s injuries are considered "very serious" and will require multiple surgeries.
Archer has a criminal record and has addresses in Yeadon, Delaware County and Philadelphia, which were searched by the FBI and Department of Homeland Security Friday. Archer was treated at the hospital and later released into police custody.
Ross said the suspect "confessed to committing this cowardly act in the name of Islam" and pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group.
Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney and other city officials were quick to say Archer's apparent motive does not "represent the religion in any way, shape or form or its teachings."
“This is a criminal with a stolen gun who tried to kill one of our officers,'' he said. “It has nothing to do with being a Muslim or following the Islamic faith.''
Archer has been denied bail and has a preliminary hearing scheduled for Jan. 25.
Hartnett is a graduate of Monsignor Bonner High School in Drexel Hill and a veteran of the U.S. Coast Guard. He previously worked for the East Lansdowne Police Department. A fundraising page created to help with his medical expenses surpassed $11,000 in donations within two days.
A teenage Philadelphia girl has been missing for nearly two weeks, and police are asking for the public's help to bring her back home.
Police said 16-year-old Za-Riah Montgomery was last seen about 7 p.m. on Dec. 29 at her home on 22nd Street near Westmoreland, in the Tioga neighborhood. Za-Riah has bipolar disorder and depression and is likely in need of medication, according to investigators.
Investigators said the teen may be in the area of 25th Street and Indiana Avenue. She is 5 feet 5, 155 pounds, and has black hair and brown eyes. She was last seen wearing a black jacket with a brown fur hood, a gray Mickey Mouse sweater, blue jeans and black sneakers, according to police.
Anyone with information on Za-Riah's whereabouts is asked to contact police at 215-686-8477.
The nationwide Powerball frenzy is continuing as the jackpot climbed this weekend to a historic $1.3 billion.
After taxes, according to Powerball, that's a cash value of $806 million
No one matched all six numbers for Saturday's drawing to win the $949 million jackpot, but two people took home $2 million, while 14 others won $1 million each.
The weekend's winning numbers were 16-19-32-34-57, with Powerball number 13.
The next Powerball drawing is Wednesday.
Powerball is played in 44 states, Washington D.C., Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
So what are the odds of becoming the world's next billionaire by hitting the Powerball? One researcher from the University of Buffalo says Americans are roughly 25 times more likely to become president of the United States than to win the big jackpot.
According to Powerball's website, the odds of matching all five white balls and the red Powerball are one in just more than 292 million. The odds of matching five white balls to win $1 million are one in 11.7 million, and the odds of matching four white balls plus the red Powerball to win $50,000 are one in 913,129.
A woman suffered minor injuries after being struck by a vehicle in Center City overnight.
Police said about 4 a.m. that the woman was at 13th and Market streets when she was struck. She was not seriously injured.
The striking vehicle remained at the scene, according to investigators. The circumstances surrounding the auto-pedestrian crash were unclear Sunday morning.
A teenage boy is in the hospital after he was stabbed inside a home in Lansdale, Pennsylvania Sunday.
Police were called to a home on Main Street around 1 p.m. When they arrived they found a 15-year-old boy inside suffering from a stab wound to the chest. The teen was taken by medical helicopter to Abington Hospital. Officials say he is in serious condition but is expected to survive.
Investigators say the teen got into a disagreement with someone shortly before the stabbing. They have not yet determined a motive or identified a suspect however. Investigators are currently speaking to the teen at the hospital as he continues to recover.
Tensions ran high in the Philadelphia Police Department Sunday in the wake of an attempted assassination of an officer by a man allegedly claiming he did it "in the name of Islam" after an anonymous tip to officers on Saturday said the threat against police in the city is ongoing.
According to a police report obtained by NBC10, an anonymous tipster told officers that, "the threat to police is not over" and that the man who shot Officer Jesse Hartnett is "part of a group that consists of three others," adding that the alleged shooter "is not the most radical of the four." The report obtained Sunday goes on to say the tipster told police to "be careful.”
Law enforcement officials confirmed Sunday afternoon that police did indeed receive a tip that Edward Archer, the man accused of approaching Hartnett's patrol car at 60th and Spruce streets Thursday night and opening fire on him at point-blank range, was working among a small group of radical men. Authorities said the tip came from a woman who approached an officer on the street.
Police said they are taking the tip seriously and investigating, and that on Sunday, they were issuing memos to all law-enforcement agencies to warn them to stay vigilant as the investigation continues. They also posted on Facebook that the FBI is investigating the tip as well.
[[364795361, C]]
Hartnett, 33, a five-year veteran, remained hospitalized on Sunday with three gunshot wounds to his arm. Doctors were working to repair nerve damage caused by the bullets.
Investigators over the weekend said that so far, they had not found anything linking Archer, 30, to the Islamic State militant group, though Archer, according to police, pledged allegiance to the group, commonly known as ISIS.
Police also said that recent trips Archer took to Egypt and Saudi Arabia have not been determined to be linked to any terrorist activity.
Archer was charged over the weekend with attempted murder, aggravated assault, assault on police, illegal gun possession and related offenses. After he was shot, Hartnett managed to get out of his patrol car and return fire at Archer, wounding him in the buttocks.
Officials said the gun Archer used was a stolen police weapon.
Officers across the city on Sunday said they were uneasy in light of the unprovoked attack on Hartnett and the new information given to officers in the same West Philadelphia neighborhood where the shooting happened.
Police continued to investigate the anonymous tip on Sunday and said they planned to re-interview the tipster.
Residents enjoyed Spring-like temperatures Sunday but the warm weather will be short-lived. An arctic blast is moving in that will lead to a dramatic drop in temperatures.
Temperatures were in the 60s Sunday afternoon after heavy rain moved out of the region. An arctic blast is now approaching the area and temperatures will fall into the 40s in Philadelphia by 9 p.m. Sunday. Conditions will get even colder overnight into Monday.
By the time you wake up, temperatures will be in the high 20s in the north and west suburbs and the low 30s in Philadelphia. Monday's high will be only 37 degrees, nearly 25 degrees colder than Sunday's high.
It will be a bit warmer Tuesday with temperatures in the low to mid 40s, however a wintry mix is set to hit the Poconos and the Lehigh Valley Tuesday night. A wintry mix could also fall in the Philadelphia area overnight into Wednesday though little to no accumulation is expected.
A second arctic blast will hit the area Wednesday leading to even colder temperatures with a high of 31. Conditions will then warm up again at the end of the week with temperatures in the low to mid 40s Thursday, Friday and Saturday.
Stay with NBC10.com for the latest weather updates.
A man was arrested after officials say he attacked and tried to steal a gun from an officer who was visiting the victim of Thursday’s ambush shooting.
On Saturday around 10:40 p.m., an 18th District officer was working detail for Officer Jesse Hartnett, who was shot in the arm three times by a gunman who approached his patrol vehicle Thursday night, investigators said. The 18th District Officer walked into Penn Presbyterian Medical Center where Hartnett is currently receiving medical treatment.
As he entered, he was approached by an unidentified man who allegedly said, “I’m hungry. I haven’t eaten in five days. Do you have any money to spare?”
Police say the officer gave the man a five dollar bill and then went inside the hospital. The officer later returned to the emergency room entrance. As he stood near the entrance doors with his back turned, the same man he gave the money to tried to grab the officer’s handgun from his holster, police said. After a struggle, the officer was able to subdue the man with help from the Penn Security team and other officers. The officer was not injured during the incident while the suspect suffered a minor facial injury.
The 40-year-old suspect, who has not yet been identified, was then placed into custody. While in custody the suspect allegedly told police he wanted the officer's gun in order to conduct a robbery.
News of the incident comes as Philadelphia Police continue to investigate an anonymous tip claiming there is an ongoing threat to officers in the city following Thursday’s ambush shooting of Officer Hartnett. The tip states the suspect in the shooting was part of a group of three others.
Police say the incident at Penn Presbyterian was not related to Hartnett’s shooting.
Sunday marked the final forecast for NBC10’s Brittney Shipp. After spending three years with our First Alert Weather team, Brittney is moving on to start a new journey in San Francisco where she’ll work as the main weekday night meteorologist for KRON-TV.
Brittney joined NBC10 in January 2013, after previously working at KTVK-3 in Phoenix, Arizona. In addition to her duties at NBC10, Brittney occasionally served in as a fill-in meteorologist for NBC's Early Today, and MSNBC's First Look, Way Too Early and Morning Joe.
Brittney started her television career in 2006 at NBC affiliate KYMA in Yuma, Arizona. While there she reported on weather and special features for the station’s weekday morning news.
All of us here at NBC10 are sad to see her go but we wish Brittney the best of luck! So long Brittney!
Follow Brittney on Twitter and Facebook.
