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Philadelphia victim’s family sought ambulance, not police; protests continue

Protesters confront police during a march Oct. 27, 2020, in Philadelphia. Hundreds of demonstrators marched in West Philadelphia over the death of Walter Wallace, a Black man who was killed by police in Philadelphia on Monday. Police shot and killed the 27-year-old on a Philadelphia street after yelling at him to drop his knife. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)

PHILADELPHIA
(AP) — The family of a Black man killed by Philadelphia police officers
in a shooting caught on video had called for an ambulance to get him
help with a mental health crisis, not for police intervention, their
lawyer said Tuesday.

Police said Walter Wallace Jr., 27, was
wielding a knife and ignored orders to drop the weapon before officers
fired shots Monday afternoon. But his parents said Tuesday night that
officers knew their son was in a mental health crisis because they had
been to the family’s house three times on Monday.

Cathy Wallace, his mother, said one of the times, “they stood there and laughed at us.”

The
Wallace family’s attorney, Shaka Johnson, said the man’s wife,
Dominique Wallace, is pregnant and is scheduled to have labor induced
Wednesday. Johnson said Wallace had nine children — two briefly spoke at
a news conference late Tuesday, along with Walter Wallace’s mother and
father.

“When you come to a scene where somebody is in a mental
crisis, and the only tool you have to deal with it is a gun … where
are the proper tools for the job?” Johnson said, arguing that
Philadelphia police officers are not properly trained to handle mental
health crises. Johnson said Wallace’s brother had called 911 to request
medical assistance and ambulance.

About 500 people had gathered at
a West Philadelphia park Tuesday night and began marching through the
neighborhood, chanting. There were sporadic reports of arrests in other
areas of the city Tuesday night around 9 p.m.

Video showed people
streaming into stores and stealing goods as they left on the opposite
side of the city from where Wallace was shot. The Philadelphia Office of
Emergency Management tweeted around 9:30 p.m. Tuesday, cautioning
residents in eastern Philadelphia to remain indoors.

Philadelphia
officials had anticipated a second night of unrest Tuesday, after
Philadelphia police arrested more than 90 people during protests and
unrest that began Monday and spread into the early morning hours of
Tuesday, sometimes turning into violent confrontations with police.
Police were stationing extra officers on business corridors in west
Philadelphia and elsewhere in preparation.

A Pennsylvania National Guard spokesperson told The Philadelphia Inquirer earlier Tuesday that several hundred guardsmen were expected to arrive in the city within 24 to 48 hours.

Police
had previously said 30 officers were injured in the Monday night
unrest, most of them hit with thrown objects like bricks. One officer
was still hospitalized Tuesday with a broken leg after being purposely
run over by a pickup truck, police said.

Throughout the day
Tuesday, state and local officials called for transparency and a
thorough investigation, including the release of body camera footage
from the two officers who fired their weapons.

Police Commissioner
Danielle Outlaw said at a news conference Tuesday that she was still
reviewing when and what information would be released to the public. The
officers had not been interviewed as of Tuesday afternoon, she said.
Neither had a Taser or similar device at the time of the shooting,
Outlaw said, noting the department had previously asked for funding to
equip more officers with those devices.

Outlaw said the officers’
names and other identifying information, including their race, would be
withheld until the department could be sure releasing the information
would not pose a threat to their safety. The officers were taken off
street duty during the investigation.

Police officials said they
could not confirm what information had been given to the responding
officers, whether they were told about a possible mental illness or how
many calls they had received for help at Wallace’s address Monday. Chief
Police Inspector Frank Vanore confirmed that police had received a call
before the fatal encounter Monday about a man screaming and saying that
he was armed with a knife.

The two officers each fired at least
seven rounds — at least 14 total shots — but Vanore could not say how
many times Wallace, 27, was struck.

Wallace’s father, Walter Wallace Sr. said Tuesday night that he is haunted by the way his son was “butchered.”

“It’s in my mind. I can’t even sleep at night. I can’t even close my eyes,” he said.

In
video filmed by a bystander and posted on social media, officers yell
for Wallace to drop a knife. In the video, Wallace’s mother and at least
one man follow Wallace, trying to get him to listen to officers, as he
briskly walks across the street and between cars.

Wallace
advanced toward the officers, who then fired several times, said police
spokesperson Officer Tanya Little. Wallace’s mother screams and throws
something at an officer after her son is shot and falls to the ground.

The
video does not make it clear whether he was in fact holding a knife,
but witnesses said he was. Police would not confirm any details about
the weapon Wallace was alleged to be holding Tuesday, saying it is still
part of the open investigation.

Wallace was hit in the shoulder
and chest, Little said. One officer drove him to a hospital, where he
was pronounced dead a short time later, she said.

During Monday’s
unrest, police cars and dumpsters were set on fire as officers struggled
to contain the crowds. More than a dozen officers, many with batons in
hand, formed a line as they ran down 52nd Street, dispersing most of the
crowd.

In at least one video posted to social media, an officer
can be seen appearing to arrest a young Black woman. A white officer
wrestles the woman to the ground, lying with his back against her, and
punches her repeatedly.

A request for comment or details about
the incident was not returned by police Tuesday. A District Attorney’s
office spokesperson urged people with concerns about misconduct or crime
during the protest to report those issues to the office’s special
investigations unit.

The 52nd Street corridor was also the site
of protests against police brutality at the end of May, after George
Floyd was killed by Minneapolis police. Those protests have been the
subject of City Council hearings, with protesters describing harsh and
unnecessary tactics, including tear gas and projectiles fired by police.