Four Shot By Police As 2008 Arrives

And so it begins . . .

Four people, including a 9-year-old boy, were injured in two confrontations between police and revelers firing gunshots into the air after midnight yesterday morning, police said.

Police were patrolling in the East Germantown section when they responded to a report of gunshots at 12:01 a.m. in the 5600 block of Boyer Street. They came upon a man firing a 45-caliber semiautomatic handgun into the air, said Lt. Frank Vanore, a spokesman for the Philadelphia Police Department.

Vanore said Steven Walker, 38, pointed his gun at the officers while attempting to retreat into a home. Vanore said an officer fired his gun "several times" and missed Walker, but struck two men and a boy who were inside the house. The boy was grazed in the back by a bullet. He was treated at Albert Einstein Medical Center.

In a second incident, in the 900 block of West Butler Street in the Hunting Park section, police with the department's SWAT team heard gunshots at 12:12 a.m. coming from an alley. Vanore said they came upon three men reloading their firearms. He said the men scattered when approached by the officers.

But as 23-year-old Joseph Farris tried to run away, he turned on the second officer, Vanore said. "The officer discharges at him and strikes him one time in the ankle," Vanore said. The lieutenant said that the ankle injury was minor and that police were unharmed. (H/T - The Philadelphia Inquirer)

I gotta be honest here; I have absolutely no sympathy for any of these people. Serves them right for firing their weapons in the air. We told them what would happen if they shot their guns off on New Year's Eve, and they didn't listen. Idiots probably think that if they fire in the air, the projectile never comes back to earth.

As for the morons who pointed their guns at police officers? Frak you! Last year, this department took it on the chin. Officers were assaulted, shot at on numerous occasions, and Chuck Cassidy was assassinated. If the thugs of Philadelphia think we're just going to let that nonsense occur without consequence, they are smoking some really bad crack.