R1pper
03-26-08, 00:31
http://officer.com/online/article.jsp?siteSection=1&id=40761
JULIE SHAW
The Philadelphia Daily News
A judge yesterday dismissed an attempted-murder charge in the shooting of a Philadelphia Housing Authority police officer last month, prompting outrage among police and prosecutors.
"Give him another m---------ing rifle. He can just walk. That's just madness," one PHA police officer, who did not want to give his name, said right after yesterday's preliminary hearing.
The chorus of anger in the hallway continued with a city police officer shouting: "This is why crime's out of control!"
PHA Police Officer Craig Kelley, who was shot Feb. 17 as he manned a security booth in a Germantown public-housing high-rise, told reporters: "What does it take? Does it take for him to shoot somebody who's not a police officer with an assault rifle? This was a rifle, a military rifle."
The officers were reacting to Municipal Judge Deborah Shelton Griffin's dismissal of an attempted-murder charge against defendant Zahir Boddy-Johnson, 17, the alleged shooter, and her decision to then lower his bail from $5 million to $75,000.
Griffin held Boddy-Johnson, of Diamond Street near 23rd, North Philadelphia, for trial on aggravated-assault and weapons offenses.
Hours later, the District Attorney's Office refiled the attempted-murder charge and also filed a petition in Common Pleas Court to have Boddy-Johnson's bail reinstated to $5 million. Judge Benjamin Lerner did so, pending a hearing Thursday.
Kelley, 49, testified at yesterday's hearing that he was manning a security booth inside the Queen Lane Apartments on Queen Lane near Pulaski Avenue when a man knocked on the door.
After Kelley opened the door, a man with a scarf covering his face pointed a rifle at him and "stated, 'Don't move!' " Kelley testified.
"I tried to slam the door as hard as I could," Kelley said, but the gunman shot him once in his front-left torso, above his hip.
The gunman fired two more times after the door closed, hitting the booth, Kelley testified.
Boddy-Johnson allegedly confessed to the shooting, according to a statement read in court yesterday by Homicide Detective Patrick Mangold.
When asked why he had shot the officer, he said: "I was going to rob him when he opened the door to the booth. I shot the gun one time and then he closed the door. I then shot two more times while he was inside the booth. I was shooting through the glass, but I don't think the bullets went through. I was just shooting."
Boddy-Johnson said he wanted to rob the officer's laptop and gun so he could "sell it [to pay] restitution for my stolen-car case."
He said he used an SKS rifle. "I bought it off the street," he said. "It came with the bullets."
He told police he had used the rifle in target practice, shooting at bottles in a park at 25th and Diamond streets.
He also said he dropped the rifle a couple of blocks from the high-rise as he was running away. Police recovered a rifle believed to be the weapon used.
Defense attorney Michael Coard yesterday argued for a dismissal of the attempted-murder charge, saying that, by law, "simply firing a gun at somebody . . . is not attempted murder."
Coard also called the $5 million bail an "outrageous ransom."
Assistant District Attorney Erica Wilson argued for Boddy-Johnson to be held on the attempted-murder charge, contending that he had been aiming at Kelley's chest, a vital part of the body.
Griffin reasoned that the defendant had shot at the officer as a "reaction."
"He didn't expect the officer to close the door. . . . ," the judge said. "He was surprised, and that's why he fired."
Boddy-Johnson was previously arrested Aug. 21, after he was found trying to steal a Jeep Cherokee on Girard Avenue near 20th Street in Fairmount, according to police records. The Jeep belonged to a police detective.
The case was resolved in Family Court without a trial after Boddy-Johnson agreed to pay restitution to the Jeep's owner.
Griffin, meanwhile, faces her own challenge in the state Supreme Court.
On March 5, the state Attorney General's Office and the Philadelphia D.A.'s Office argued before the court that Griffin be removed from the bench because she had pleaded guilty in 1984 in federal court to two felony counts involving the use of a false identity.
In 1982, before Griffin became a judge, she had used a false Social Security number to obtain two credit cards.
Her attorney, Samuel C. Stretton, said last week that he believes that the high court "should look at the totality" of the case and not remove Griffin, who he says grew up in housing projects, turned her life around, and now "brings so much to the bench." *
JULIE SHAW
The Philadelphia Daily News
A judge yesterday dismissed an attempted-murder charge in the shooting of a Philadelphia Housing Authority police officer last month, prompting outrage among police and prosecutors.
"Give him another m---------ing rifle. He can just walk. That's just madness," one PHA police officer, who did not want to give his name, said right after yesterday's preliminary hearing.
The chorus of anger in the hallway continued with a city police officer shouting: "This is why crime's out of control!"
PHA Police Officer Craig Kelley, who was shot Feb. 17 as he manned a security booth in a Germantown public-housing high-rise, told reporters: "What does it take? Does it take for him to shoot somebody who's not a police officer with an assault rifle? This was a rifle, a military rifle."
The officers were reacting to Municipal Judge Deborah Shelton Griffin's dismissal of an attempted-murder charge against defendant Zahir Boddy-Johnson, 17, the alleged shooter, and her decision to then lower his bail from $5 million to $75,000.
Griffin held Boddy-Johnson, of Diamond Street near 23rd, North Philadelphia, for trial on aggravated-assault and weapons offenses.
Hours later, the District Attorney's Office refiled the attempted-murder charge and also filed a petition in Common Pleas Court to have Boddy-Johnson's bail reinstated to $5 million. Judge Benjamin Lerner did so, pending a hearing Thursday.
Kelley, 49, testified at yesterday's hearing that he was manning a security booth inside the Queen Lane Apartments on Queen Lane near Pulaski Avenue when a man knocked on the door.
After Kelley opened the door, a man with a scarf covering his face pointed a rifle at him and "stated, 'Don't move!' " Kelley testified.
"I tried to slam the door as hard as I could," Kelley said, but the gunman shot him once in his front-left torso, above his hip.
The gunman fired two more times after the door closed, hitting the booth, Kelley testified.
Boddy-Johnson allegedly confessed to the shooting, according to a statement read in court yesterday by Homicide Detective Patrick Mangold.
When asked why he had shot the officer, he said: "I was going to rob him when he opened the door to the booth. I shot the gun one time and then he closed the door. I then shot two more times while he was inside the booth. I was shooting through the glass, but I don't think the bullets went through. I was just shooting."
Boddy-Johnson said he wanted to rob the officer's laptop and gun so he could "sell it [to pay] restitution for my stolen-car case."
He said he used an SKS rifle. "I bought it off the street," he said. "It came with the bullets."
He told police he had used the rifle in target practice, shooting at bottles in a park at 25th and Diamond streets.
He also said he dropped the rifle a couple of blocks from the high-rise as he was running away. Police recovered a rifle believed to be the weapon used.
Defense attorney Michael Coard yesterday argued for a dismissal of the attempted-murder charge, saying that, by law, "simply firing a gun at somebody . . . is not attempted murder."
Coard also called the $5 million bail an "outrageous ransom."
Assistant District Attorney Erica Wilson argued for Boddy-Johnson to be held on the attempted-murder charge, contending that he had been aiming at Kelley's chest, a vital part of the body.
Griffin reasoned that the defendant had shot at the officer as a "reaction."
"He didn't expect the officer to close the door. . . . ," the judge said. "He was surprised, and that's why he fired."
Boddy-Johnson was previously arrested Aug. 21, after he was found trying to steal a Jeep Cherokee on Girard Avenue near 20th Street in Fairmount, according to police records. The Jeep belonged to a police detective.
The case was resolved in Family Court without a trial after Boddy-Johnson agreed to pay restitution to the Jeep's owner.
Griffin, meanwhile, faces her own challenge in the state Supreme Court.
On March 5, the state Attorney General's Office and the Philadelphia D.A.'s Office argued before the court that Griffin be removed from the bench because she had pleaded guilty in 1984 in federal court to two felony counts involving the use of a false identity.
In 1982, before Griffin became a judge, she had used a false Social Security number to obtain two credit cards.
Her attorney, Samuel C. Stretton, said last week that he believes that the high court "should look at the totality" of the case and not remove Griffin, who he says grew up in housing projects, turned her life around, and now "brings so much to the bench." *