Around 11:30 p.m., suspect Edward Archer, 30, fired a semiautomatic pistol into Officer Jesse Hartnett’s police car near 60th and Spruce streets. | Courtesy of Yumi Kimura/Creative Commons
On Thursday night, around 20 blocks from Penn, a man professing allegiance to the Islamic State shot and wounded a Philadelphia police officer.
Around 11:30 p.m., suspect Edward Archer, 30 years old, fired a semi-automatic pistol into Officer Jesse Hartnett’s police car near 60th and Spruce streets. Archer was arrested that night and remained in police custody on Friday.
A Philly.com staff report said Hartnett was hit three times in the arm. As of Friday afternoon, he was in stable condition at Penn Presbyterian Medical Center.
Archer allegedly told detectives, “I follow Allah. I pledge my allegiance to the Islamic State. That’s why I did what I did,” Homicide Unit Commander Capt. James Clark told Philly.com.
Archer was wounded by return fire from Hartnett and treated at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania on Thursday night.
“This guy tried to execute a police officer,” police commissioner Richard Rossok said Friday morning.
Later on Friday afternoon, Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney made a statement saying that the act "does not represent the religion in any way, shape, or form."
"This is a criminal with a stolen gun who tried to kill one of our officers, has nothing to do with being a Muslim or following the Islamic faith," Kenney concluded.
This article was updated at 4:07 p.m. on January 10.
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