A Philadelphia police officer was shot and taken to the hospital Sunday evening, and two suspects are in custody.
According to Philadelphia NBC affiliate WCAU, Officer James McCullough was wounded in the leg by two men trying to escape an auto-theft attempt.
The officer was flagged down by a woman saying her vehicle was being broken into at Salford and Market streets in West Philadelphia.
Officer McCullough, 24, approached the car and, as the suspects began to flee, was able to tackle one of them. The suspect shot the officer in the leg to escape and began to run away again.
Police said Officer McCullough then fired his own weapon three times.
“The guy that ran down Salford Street, he started shooting first,” an unnamed witness told WCAU. “He turned around and was shooting the cop and then the cop retaliated.”
According to WCAU, Officer McCullough’s partner was able to drive the badly bleeding officer, who already had self-applied a tourniquet, to nearby Presbyterian Hospital. He was in stable condition late Sunday.
Other officers were able to catch the suspects shortly afterward, though police neither immediately named them nor said whether any of Officer McCullough’s shots had hit.
• Victor Morton can be reached at vmorton@washingtontimes.com.
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