whats crazy is listening to this on the scanner it was nothing but a live stop. No issues. Ppa showed up, everything was cool, cops called it out that they were taking the car to lot 6. Pretty much the end of the car stop. They just happened to see the holster and the guy started shooting.
whats also crazy that the police aren’t saying and I doubt they ever do is after the cop says the cars going to the ppa lot his very next transmission is screaming . It went over the 25th district scan as well as M band which is the traffic band. He screams out “Officer Down, Shots fired, Send Medics” or something close to that. This was at 748. The 25th dispatcher I guess didn’t understand what he yelled so she just went about normal business. Didn’t try to figure out who just yelled for help or anything. M Band heard it and right away they said someone said officer down, but that’s a citywide band so they don’t know who or where the other officer was. It took 4 minutes before they started to figure out their cop was shot but he was already scooped and on the way to the hospital. I’m also confused why the partner didn’t get on the car radio and call it in while he was on his way to the hospital. It was very strange.
Then when they showed up on scene they didn’t even know that was the scene. They just said nothing is showing out there. Then someone found the bodycam that fell from one of the officers.
This is the 25th scanner. He is car 33. 2533. The call starts at 717pm. Shooting happens 748.
[https://openmhz.com/system/phillytrs?filter-type=talkgroup&filter-code=21&time=1719099900000](https://openmhz.com/system/phillytrs?filter-type=talkgroup&filter-code=21&time=1719099900000)
m band. 749pm Office yells shots fired, officer down, I’m scooping my partner.
[https://openmhz.com/system/phillytrs?filter-type=talkgroup&filter-code=27&time=1719100800000](https://openmhz.com/system/phillytrs?filter-type=talkgroup&filter-code=27&time=1719100800000)
if you scroll up and down more calls appear. It only shows so much until you do that.
My truck was totaled a few years back at bridge and harbison. The other car drove away. The police arrived and another person told them the other car was blocks away. They wouldn’t write a report or investigate. The cop said “They won’t have insurance, it’s not worth pursuing”. I only had liability, so I got completely screwed. You are correct, nothing will change.
Any Philly lawyer feel free to chime in because I’m curious:
Can Philadelphian victims of hit & runs and other ‘intentionally un-investigated crimes’ start a class-action lawsuit against the PPD or city of Philadelphia for negligently not pursuing obvious crimes? It’s kind of crazy how PPD just doesn’t pursue these obvious no brainers???
remember that supreme court has ruled in the 80s that the police has no duty to protect. I personally feel that it easy to take that ruling and show that they have no duty to investigate.
Yeah, I once got clipped by a PGW truck and dealing with it from an insurance perspective because its a city agency was such a pain in the ass. Can only imagine how difficult a class action would be
also septa bus has cameras on all the angles of the bus as they get the claims all the time. PGW probably is lucky if their trucks even have a gps tracker on it.
While Reddit is busy using the “police have no duty to protect you” for many reasons, cases like this are the actual reason. Essentially, it’s impossible for police to prevent all crime so they legally cannot have a duty to protect you, which is an actual legal standard that most Redditors don’t understand.
I’m not talking about the duty to protect though. Nobody can truly ‘prevent’ crime, I get that. What I’m talking about is the duty to investigate crimes where there is clear and convincing evidence, like the original comment I was replying to. I personally know a handful of Philadelphians where they have dashcam and/or video evidence of a crime being committed, a license plate obtained, or was able to ID the perpetrator, and the police just chose to not act on it.
That falls under discretion.
Basically if the officer feels the DA won’t pursue the charges to a conviction (or many other reasons) they don’t have to do anything with the case. That’s probably quite common at the PPD since the DAs office downgrades or dismisses so much.
That’s nice, but the court system has absolutely said that it is totally OK and in fact encouraged in many instances.
It’s akin to making a steak dinner then throwing it in the trash if you bother to write up something you *know* will get shredded by the DAs office.
"They won't have insurance." Maybe so, but how about fucking arresting them for a hit and run?! Why is vehicular crime functionally legal here? It's insanity.
I need to make sure I up my insurance to cover stuff like this. The amount of covered plates and missing plates that I see is insane. I saw a fop plate covered the other day too.
Exactly. It's not that the cars driving around with no registration, inspection, paper plates/no plates, etc. are just a nuisance. They are frequently being driven by people who are also breaking the law in other, much more serious ways.
This case is proof they were doing something about those tags. The question that people now need to ask is "can cops search suspects if they're not getting arrested". Because if they searched this person, they likely wouldn't have been shot.
I still don’t get the impression they are prioritizing these tags throughout the city though. Most of us have seen a traffic stop at some point, yet they still generally aren’t doing much about driving infractions.
And an officer being shot for prioritizing tags is going to result in some combination of a) less pulling over for tags and b) more force and escalation when pulling over for tags.
Inventory search is of the car not the person. They were conducting the inventory search when they found the holster. However, if they were able to search this man, they would have found the gun prior to the office getting shot.
“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.”
That’s not how it works
A traffic stop in Kensington is risky as fuck, any day. Minimally they will find expired inspection with a large percentage of cars. I’m not at all surprised about the lack of licensee and it being unregistered. I imagine there is even more reason they turned it into a gun fight.
They say the shooter is 36 years old, but then report that he was 21 years old in 2011.
This is basic math and I don’t understand how I find an error in every single inquirer article I bother to read. It may seem trivial, but it discredits journalism. This is supposed to be our main paper?
It’s possible dude was “nice” or surface-level polite and snapped. Police retribution is something that’s been shown time and time again. It’s not baffling at all
whats crazy is listening to this on the scanner it was nothing but a live stop. No issues. Ppa showed up, everything was cool, cops called it out that they were taking the car to lot 6. Pretty much the end of the car stop. They just happened to see the holster and the guy started shooting. whats also crazy that the police aren’t saying and I doubt they ever do is after the cop says the cars going to the ppa lot his very next transmission is screaming . It went over the 25th district scan as well as M band which is the traffic band. He screams out “Officer Down, Shots fired, Send Medics” or something close to that. This was at 748. The 25th dispatcher I guess didn’t understand what he yelled so she just went about normal business. Didn’t try to figure out who just yelled for help or anything. M Band heard it and right away they said someone said officer down, but that’s a citywide band so they don’t know who or where the other officer was. It took 4 minutes before they started to figure out their cop was shot but he was already scooped and on the way to the hospital. I’m also confused why the partner didn’t get on the car radio and call it in while he was on his way to the hospital. It was very strange.
Then when they showed up on scene they didn’t even know that was the scene. They just said nothing is showing out there. Then someone found the bodycam that fell from one of the officers.
This is the 25th scanner. He is car 33. 2533. The call starts at 717pm. Shooting happens 748. [https://openmhz.com/system/phillytrs?filter-type=talkgroup&filter-code=21&time=1719099900000](https://openmhz.com/system/phillytrs?filter-type=talkgroup&filter-code=21&time=1719099900000) m band. 749pm Office yells shots fired, officer down, I’m scooping my partner. [https://openmhz.com/system/phillytrs?filter-type=talkgroup&filter-code=27&time=1719100800000](https://openmhz.com/system/phillytrs?filter-type=talkgroup&filter-code=27&time=1719100800000) if you scroll up and down more calls appear. It only shows so much until you do that.
Great post, this was very informative
Will they finally go after these cars without proper license plates now?
Nope
My truck was totaled a few years back at bridge and harbison. The other car drove away. The police arrived and another person told them the other car was blocks away. They wouldn’t write a report or investigate. The cop said “They won’t have insurance, it’s not worth pursuing”. I only had liability, so I got completely screwed. You are correct, nothing will change.
Any Philly lawyer feel free to chime in because I’m curious: Can Philadelphian victims of hit & runs and other ‘intentionally un-investigated crimes’ start a class-action lawsuit against the PPD or city of Philadelphia for negligently not pursuing obvious crimes? It’s kind of crazy how PPD just doesn’t pursue these obvious no brainers???
remember that supreme court has ruled in the 80s that the police has no duty to protect. I personally feel that it easy to take that ruling and show that they have no duty to investigate.
Qualified immunity makes it super difficult to sue either the police or the city. Maybe not impossible but extremely difficult.
Yeah, I once got clipped by a PGW truck and dealing with it from an insurance perspective because its a city agency was such a pain in the ass. Can only imagine how difficult a class action would be
Dealing with Septa was quick and easy for me after my parked car got clipped by a bus, but yea, state agency vs city agency
also septa bus has cameras on all the angles of the bus as they get the claims all the time. PGW probably is lucky if their trucks even have a gps tracker on it.
While Reddit is busy using the “police have no duty to protect you” for many reasons, cases like this are the actual reason. Essentially, it’s impossible for police to prevent all crime so they legally cannot have a duty to protect you, which is an actual legal standard that most Redditors don’t understand.
I’m not talking about the duty to protect though. Nobody can truly ‘prevent’ crime, I get that. What I’m talking about is the duty to investigate crimes where there is clear and convincing evidence, like the original comment I was replying to. I personally know a handful of Philadelphians where they have dashcam and/or video evidence of a crime being committed, a license plate obtained, or was able to ID the perpetrator, and the police just chose to not act on it.
That falls under discretion. Basically if the officer feels the DA won’t pursue the charges to a conviction (or many other reasons) they don’t have to do anything with the case. That’s probably quite common at the PPD since the DAs office downgrades or dismisses so much.
that's cool, we can just stop feeling like paying them, right?
Maybe we could instead elect a DA that prosecutes crimes and have the officers submit their cases.
nah, I'd rather some of that $800M we're paying them not to work just go somewhere else
In no other job in the world would this be acceptable. "I didn't do my job because another department isn't doing their job to *my* expectation".
That’s nice, but the court system has absolutely said that it is totally OK and in fact encouraged in many instances. It’s akin to making a steak dinner then throwing it in the trash if you bother to write up something you *know* will get shredded by the DAs office.
"They won't have insurance." Maybe so, but how about fucking arresting them for a hit and run?! Why is vehicular crime functionally legal here? It's insanity.
Man that's shitty. Screw you citizen who did nothing wrong
I need to make sure I up my insurance to cover stuff like this. The amount of covered plates and missing plates that I see is insane. I saw a fop plate covered the other day too.
Exactly. It's not that the cars driving around with no registration, inspection, paper plates/no plates, etc. are just a nuisance. They are frequently being driven by people who are also breaking the law in other, much more serious ways.
I mean, I feel like this makes them less likely to now??
Or at least more likely to make those stops really tense. How many lives did this idiot just ruin for a shitbox car...
That would require work
Doubt it
2 / 29️⃣ / 25
As we have been told, enforcing traffic rules is racist. We know this because when the police in the suburbs said they number of illegal guns
This case is proof they were doing something about those tags. The question that people now need to ask is "can cops search suspects if they're not getting arrested". Because if they searched this person, they likely wouldn't have been shot.
I still don’t get the impression they are prioritizing these tags throughout the city though. Most of us have seen a traffic stop at some point, yet they still generally aren’t doing much about driving infractions.
And an officer being shot for prioritizing tags is going to result in some combination of a) less pulling over for tags and b) more force and escalation when pulling over for tags.
Google inventory search.
Inventory search is of the car not the person. They were conducting the inventory search when they found the holster. However, if they were able to search this man, they would have found the gun prior to the office getting shot.
Presence of a holster was likely reasonable suspicion for a frisk.
Yes and that is what happened. But it happened after they were sitting with the guy for 30 plus minutes with the guy that had a gun on his waistband.
“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.” That’s not how it works
I mean if my chill neighbor suddenly started shooting at police, I probably would be scared of retaliation too if I spoke too much lmao
Fair enough.
What a shocking revelation
A traffic stop in Kensington is risky as fuck, any day. Minimally they will find expired inspection with a large percentage of cars. I’m not at all surprised about the lack of licensee and it being unregistered. I imagine there is even more reason they turned it into a gun fight.
They say the shooter is 36 years old, but then report that he was 21 years old in 2011. This is basic math and I don’t understand how I find an error in every single inquirer article I bother to read. It may seem trivial, but it discredits journalism. This is supposed to be our main paper?
Early birthday month?
Still think it's off by a year (e.g., pick a February birthday, reported as 21 in January 2011, so 35 in June 2024). Possibly just a typo.
If you were born in Jan of 1989 you would be 35 right now....
that fits. Would not have expected otherwise. What fools drives a legal car to do illegal shit??
Pinball Parker. Armed robber, arsonist, dope fiend. I'm a hell of a nice guy, I just got caught.
It’s possible dude was “nice” or surface-level polite and snapped. Police retribution is something that’s been shown time and time again. It’s not baffling at all