A man claiming allegiance to the Islamic State group shot and seriously wounded a police officer in Philadelphia, opening fire multiple times at point-blank range with a stolen police gun before he was arrested, officials said on Friday.
Policeman Jesse Hartnett, 33, was shot three times in his left arm as he sat in his patrol car late on Thursday in the northeastern city.
“I’m shot. I’m bleeding heavily,” he yelled in a dispatch call.
Authorities said they were astonished that Hartnett survived.
Philadelphia police commissioner Richard Ross called the attack “absolutely chilling” and described the officer’s injuries as “very, very serious.”
Stills captured from video surveillance and released to the press show the suspect — named by police as Edward Archer, 30, a local man — opening fire as he walked toward the patrol car, extending his arm into the vehicle and then continuing to fire as he flees on foot.
“If that doesn’t just make the hairs on your neck just rise when you see that, it’s scary,” Ross told reporters.
The officer got out of his vehicle, despite being injured, and managed to return fire, hitting the suspect, who was quickly arrested.
“He stated that he pledges his allegiance to Islamic State, follows Allah and that is the reason he was called upon to do this,” homicide police Captain James Clark told a news conference.
Police said it was unclear how the suspect obtained the firearm, which was stolen from police in October 2013.
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