Another day, another high-profile murder in a Democrat-controlled city, this time in Philadelphia.
According to The Associated Press, Philadelphia police officer Richard Mendez was one of two policemen wounded on Thursday night while confronting alleged burglars inside the parking lot at Philadelphia International Airport.
According to John Stanford, interim police commissioner of Philadelphia, seasoned officers Richard Mendez and Raul Ortiz heard breaking glass and spotted several people entering a vehicle around 11 p.m.
When the two confronted the suspects, Mendez was shot many times. According to the Associated Press, Ortiz was shot once in the arm and one of the suspects was injured.
Both cops were rushed to hospitals, according to Stanford, but Mendez died shortly after arriving. Ortiz remained hospitalized in stable condition on Friday. They were both assigned to the airport unit.
According to CBS News, this comes only a week after three other cops were shot and injured while responding to a call in Philadelphia.
Mendez, 50, was a 22-year police veteran who worked in the city’s 25th Police District before being assigned to the airport unit.
According to CBS, Mendez “was a great guy, a great cop, really well respected,” according to Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 5 president John McNesby.
“He was a standout officer,” McNesby said. “You saw more tears in that emergency room than I’ve ever since in the years that I’ve been here.”
Furthermore, the airport assignment is intended to be an opportunity for senior officers to take on as they near retirement.
“It’s a place where you’re supposed to be winding down your career, and here they’re shot coming to work,” McNesby said.
According to The Philadelphia Inquirer, at least 112 cars have been taken from the parking lot at Philadelphia International Airport in the last several weeks.
The FOP Lodge initially offered a $30,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of Mendez’s assailant. Several additional groups contributed to the prize fund, which had reached $180,000 by late Friday.
FOP Lodge president Joseph Regan issued a statement saying, “We lost a hero today. Our deepest condolences go out to the officer’s loved ones during this difficult time.
“We stand together with the Philadelphia Police Department and FOP Lodge 5 in honoring this hero’s sacrifice and praying for the full recovery of the injured officer.”
Although no suspects have been identified, CBS reported that Philadelphia police are hunting for at least three persons who were driving a Dodge Durango stolen from South Philadelphia last week.
This vehicle is thought to have delivered an 18-year-old suspect to Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia on Friday morning. The suspect was shot and killed afterward.
Naturally, five police officers being shot in a week may lead some to assume that George Soros-backed Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner’s soft-on-crime tactics are to blame. But don’t tell Krasner, who used the death of a police officer to rail against the National Rifle Association.
“Law enforcement across multiple agencies are working continuously to identify those responsible — without the ability to quickly match ballistics on scene to a firearm that can be traced via database to point of regulated sale and owner, all because gun-crazy politicians serve the NRA’s bloody agenda instead of serving and protecting the public,” Krasner said in a statement released by the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office.
“America has more guns than people, thanks to the same gun-crazy politicians who oppose common-sense gun regulations.”
One may say that Philadelphia has five shooting police officers, one of whom is dead, as a result of one political party and one progressive DA who do not believe law enforcement’s responsibility is to uphold the law.
Do you support the proliferation of tools for breaking and entering cars, District Attorney Krasner? Because, given the recent spate of car robberies at Philadelphia International Airport, this appeared to be a role.
Is the NRA in favor of leniency against property criminals? Because you do, Mr. Krasner, which encourages lawbreakers and keeps them on the streets – just like other Soros-funded DAs in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Manhattan, and other urban hellholes.
Other statements by Democratic politicians in both Philadelphia and Pennsylvania could be sneered at in the same way that Democrats sneer at conservatives who offer prayers after shootings, as if already-failed Democrat gun control schemes would have worked better than God.
However, they had the grace not to say that, following a murder that appears to have been prompted by police confronting property thieves, the NRA was to blame, rather than the guy who took office with the intention of assisting property thieves in the name of social justice. Mr. Krasner, excellent work.