VIDEO: Crowd taunts, assaults police as suspect shoots officers

1047

A shootout with an armed felon that left six Philadelphia police officers wounded grew even more dangerous for police as a crowd formed and began heckling, taunting and even assaulting officers.

“Police say officers were serving a narcotics warrant on the 3700 block of North 15th Street around 4:30 p.m. when the suspect opened fire. As police exchanged gunfire, officers escaped through windows and doors,” Philadelphia’s CBS3 reports.

But the armed felon wasn’t the only person attacking police.

“A major moment of disappointment this evening was watching a crowd of people taunt police officers, laughing and yelling at them in the midst of the gunfire,” CBS3 reporter Alexandria Hoff, who says she was harassed as well.

Cellphone video shows a crowd jeering, shoving and throwing objects at police officers making their way to the scene of the shooting.

Local residents then appeared to try and pick fights with police as others recorded the confrontation.

This should be a reminder that in a disaster or mass disturbance, you can’t count on the police to protect you. In fact, you may need to protect them.