Chasing down armed robbery suspects in April spurred applause for three officers at the Oct. 9 meeting of the 2nd Police District Advisory Council.
Officers Kevin McGrorty, Kirk Dodd and Padraic Feeney were honored as the PDAC’s Officers of the Month for April.
The three were working the 7 p.m. to 3 a.m. tour on April 21 when they were called to the 6000 block of Oxford Ave. to investigate a call of a robbery in progress, said Mark Mroz, the 2nd district’s community relations officer.
The victim told the officers that three black men wearing black hoodies and white masks had tried to rob him, Mroz said. The victim said one man was armed with a sawed-off shotgun.
The victim spotted two men nearby and told the police officer that one who was wearing a white T-shirt and holding a black hoodie might be one of the robbers.
Feeney and Dodd pulled their car next to the two men, announced they were police officers, showed them their badges and told them to stop.
They didn’t. Instead, they took off.
Feeney ran after the man in the white shirt and quickly got hold of him.
McGrorty pursued the other man through a nearby playground and field in his squad car, which he then used as a weapon.
According to Mroz, the fleeing man stopped, turned and pointed a gun at the officer, who was just 10 feet away. The officer then swerved his car to strike the man. McGrorty got out of his car, but the man continued running until the officer caught up to him as he was trying to climb a fence.
Dodd, in the meantime, found the gun, a loaded .357 Magnum revolver, that the fleeing man had dropped. Mroz also said officers found the shotgun.
Arrested were Andre Green, 27, of the 1900 block of Redfield St., and John Scott, 28, of the 2000 block of S. 57th St. Mroz said the victim positively identified them as the men who had tried to rob him. They were charged with assault, weapons and related offenses. Scott had received cuts to his arm and was treated at Aria Health’s Frankford campus.
The third man was not captured, Mroz said, and the two men in custody aren’t talking.
Capt. Michael McCarrick, the 2nd district’s commander, said the PDAC’s recognition is a morale booster for the officers and “goes some miles with their families, too.”
Commenting on local crime rates, the captain said the 2nd district was seeing those rates decreasing. However, he said, there are two armed young men who have been committing a lot of street robberies in the district. Descriptions of the men are vague, the captain said. Both are thought to be teenagers of average height and both wear dark clothing.
PDAC members will not meet in November. Their next session will be at 7 p.m. on Dec. 11 at the Philadelphia Protestant Home, 6500 Tabor Ave. Chairwoman Lynn Genetti said the meeting will be a holiday gathering and invited members to bring appetizers. ••
