Man charged after officer hurt when firearm discharged in North Philly: Police

A 26-year-old man has been charged for his suspected involvement in a shooting that left a Highway Patrol officer injured on Monday, the Philadelphia Police Department announced on Tuesday

According to police, 26-year-old Rashid Walker was charged with weapons violations after he was found with a firearm during a vehicle stop along the 2400 block of North 17th Street in North Philadelphia around 7:40 p.m. on Monday, May 4.

At that time, a firearm was found on Walker when a vehicle that he was riding as a passenger in was pulled over by police, officials explained.

The firearm was discovered when Walker was pat down during that traffic stop, according to police.

Police explained that just as an officer felt a handgun inside Walker’s jacket pocket, the firearm discharged and hit the officer in his right leg.

The officer was immediately taken to a nearby hospital where he was listed in stable condition, police said.

“The good part is he’s doing well,” Philadelphia Police Commissioner Kevin Bethel told NBC10. “His prognosis, as I shared yesterday, is going well.”

The officer was identified as a 20 year veteran of the Philadelphia Police Department. He is a husband and father to three children, officials said.

Walker was taken into custody at the scene along with the firearm, according to officials.

Officials said the officers were patrolling the area as part of an effort to address a recent uptick in violence in North Philadelphia.

Authorities have not yet said why the vehicle Walker was in was pulled over.

An investigation is still ongoing into the circumstances surrounding the firearm discharging, officials said.

The NBC10 Investigators found that police in Philadelphia have increased their vehicle stop and frisks under Commissioner Kevin Bethel. Officers conducted the most searches last year since 2016, according to PPD’s publicly available data.

Officials have also increased their vehicle stops in general and recorded more than 207,000 last year which is the most since before the pandemic. In all of those, police report they recovered just about 800 firearms.

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