INNOCENT

Man With Special Needs Shot by Police in Pennsylvania Was Unarmed

The man approached the unmarked police car asking for change.

Police have confirmed that a man with special needs who was shot by a detective in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, was unarmed at the time. Police say the man approached an unmarked police car and asked for change, startling the officer, who fired three shots through his window. The man, Joel Johnson, was hit once in the torso. Johnson was transported to a hospital where he is now in critical but stable condition, according to police. The detective said he believed the man, who emerged from between two parked cars on the officer’s driver side, had a firearm in his hand. “The detective, believing he was going to be robbed or something was going to happen to him, produced his firearm,” said Captain Sekou Kinebrew. “The officer was on his phone and he said he reacted, he got nervous, pulled out his weapon and just started shooting through the window,” the victim’s brother, Hector Tirado, said. The detective is on desk duty while police investigate the shooting.