Neighbors have set up a fund to help with the medical expenses of Philippe Holland, the 20-year-old pizza delivery driver who was shot by police in a tragic misunderstanding near 51st and Willows on April 22.
Philippe Holland
Holland, a Community College of Philadelphia student, is recovering in the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania (HUP) with three gunshot wounds, including one in the face.
Holland had just finished making a delivery when two plain-clothes officers attempted to stop and question him as he was walking along a sidewalk with his hands in his pockets and his hood up. The officers were investigating a shooting that had happened in the area minutes earlier. Holland, who police believe may have thought he was being robbed, ran to his car and drove toward the officers. The officers fired at least 14 shots into the car, according to reports. Holland was struck in the face, leg and neck.
Neighbors Patty Bulack and Kate Krauss, who live near where the shooting took place, have organized the “Fund for Phil.” Krauss said she recently spoke with Holland’s family at HUP.
“We want to offer the family some tangible solidarity,” Krauss said.
Holland will survive but needs facial reconstructive surgery and “probably a lot more,” she said.
Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey has visited Holland in the hospital. The shooting is still under investigation and the officers involved have been placed on desk duty.
Krauss said Holland’s mother asked her to convey to residents her hope that they keep Phillipe in their thoughts and prayers. She also hoped there could be a different way to get food to people at night other than drivers, who are often the target of violence.
There are two ways to help. You can drop a donation off at the Mariposa Food Coop at 4824 Baltimore Ave or you can go to Pay Pal, where the family has set up an account. You will need to enter “FundforPhil – at – Gmail.com.”
May 1st, 2014 at 6:01 pm
It is upsetting that the author of this article chose to include this irrelevant piece of information:
“he was walking along a sidewalk with his hands in his pockets and his hood up”
and omitted this relevant piece of information:
“The department’s use-of-force guidelines dictate that officers “shall not discharge their firearms at or from a moving vehicle unless deadly physical force is being used against the police officer or another person present, by means other than the moving vehicle.”
‘That is our policy, ‘Don’t shoot at moving vehicles – it’s clearly laid out that way’; Stanford said.”
-http://articles.philly.com/2014-04-25/news/49381508_1_officers-ramsey-police-shooting
May 1st, 2014 at 7:38 pm
Jacob,
We included the details about the hands in the pocket and hood up to alert readers that we understand it’s possible that he may have been suspicion because he fit a particular profile without overtly saying that. Now we have said it.
Thanks for including the police policy on shooting into moving vehicles. That certainly is important too.
– Mike Lyons
May 1st, 2014 at 10:09 pm
Great idea. I think that a portion of the officer’s pension fund should also be immediately diverted to the health care fund.
May 2nd, 2014 at 1:04 pm
I think that the Philadelphia Police Department and the Police Union should pay this young man’s bills.
May 2nd, 2014 at 1:19 pm
I have a bad feeling this story will end up like many, many others: officers taken to off street duty (with pay!) and then, when things calm down, back to their regular old job, absolutely without any consequences for their gross incompetence.
May 2nd, 2014 at 2:10 pm
no doubt the family will win a settlement but no amount of money can undo the terror this state funded gang has done to him and his family.
May 2nd, 2014 at 2:53 pm
it’s not a “tragic misunderstanding” when police racially profile someone and then shoot him, against their explicit training not to shoot people in moving vehicles–its systemic racial violence.
May 5th, 2014 at 11:40 am
My question is, who was the witness to this? Who even knows that there was anyone walking with hands in their pocket, or any other details of this case, are based on facts.
I was there that night at 50th and willows on the corner parking my bike. I heard the shots. Immediately thereafter, two police cars sped away down 50th street, blowing through stop signs, without sirens on. To me, this does not really match yup with the story. Why did the two policemen speed away from the scene? I still don’t understand this.
Perhaps what is so amazing to me is how surreal it feels when you are involved in a crime in the city in some way, and then you read the reports about it in the news, it tends to not entirely back up the experience you had. It is clear to me there are many details about this case that are not being published, reported by police.
May 5th, 2014 at 2:30 pm
As was mentioned on the earlier thread, after the car crashed the police blocked off traffic to 51st Street. The cop cars you heard speeding “away” turned back west and then south on 51st back towards the scene to block bystanders from driving into the middle of everything.
May 5th, 2014 at 5:44 pm
I disagree, but then again, who cares, really, to hear about what happened from someone who was there.
Those cops left the scene and did not return. I was there and saw it with my own eyes. I’m not sure who is putting out this bogus story out there. The cops who blocked off the scene were the ones that responded to the gun shots, not the ones who fled the scene.
The cops did not turn “back west and then south on 51st back towards the scene” because they were already speeding south on 50th, away from the scene.
May 5th, 2014 at 11:35 pm
West Philly Citizen, if you really think that what you witnessed does not jive with the official version of the story, you might want to relate your account to Internal Affairs or the Police Advisory Commission.
May 6th, 2014 at 9:47 am
as someone who lives 50 feet from where this happened, there are MANY inconsistencies in the “official” statements. One of my neighbors was taking out their garbage and did not hear the police identify themselves, ( but certainly would have as he was definitely within earshot of the corner where this happened),. If the officers had identified themselves, they must’ve done so very quietly, because if someone 50-60ft away couldn’t hear them at a calm, quiet time of night such as it was, than how was this poor guy supposed to hear them? and yeah; I saw the same thing, the two cars that sped away, down Willows, headed east, and then south on 50th.
May 18th, 2016 at 4:35 pm
Is there any update on this case? Any discipline for the trigger-happy officers involved?