Police in West Philadelphia answered a porch gun call around 1 a.m. Saturday and walked into heavy fire. One officer was killed. Another was shot a dozen times. The man now charged is a city Water Department worker.
CBS News Philadelphia reported that District Attorney Larry Krasner identified the accused as 35-year-old Eric Lewis and said Lewis opened fire on officers on the 100 block of North 52nd Street, killing one, wounding a second, and shooting at nine other officers who were not hit.
Officer Shane Seiber, 40, a 10-year veteran and father of two, died in the line of duty on Saturday, Oct. 10, 2026. The second officer, a 33-year-old father of five, was rushed into surgery. Police Commissioner Kevin Bethel said that officer “is not out of the woods yet.” Lewis is held without bail and faces a preliminary hearing soon.
Bethel said the first call described a man with a gun on a porch. Officers arrived, moved in, and came under heavy gunfire. Two officers went down. More officers, including SWAT, closed on the scene as the suspect allegedly kept firing.
Just The News reported that Lewis, described as a city water service employee, was arrested and charged with homicide of a law enforcement officer, murder, attempted homicide, and related counts after the early-morning ambush.
Krasner’s announced charges include homicide of a law enforcement officer, murder, attempted homicide of a law enforcement officer, possession of an instrument of crime, reckless endangerment, and more. Authorities have not publicly released a full charging document text or docket number in the material provided for this report.
Police recovered three guns at the scene: two handguns and a shotgun. Bethel said one handgun had been taken from one of the officers who was shot. Investigators have not publicly detailed ballistics results tying each weapon to specific shots.
Pennsylvania state Rep. Amen Brown, who lives a few blocks away and said he was on scene for the custody moment, told reporters Lewis hid in a tree for hours before police pulled him down and took him into custody. Brown also said Lewis lives in the neighborhood and has “an extensive criminal record.”
Brown further claimed that while Lewis was being arrested, Lewis said he wished he had killed more officers. That alleged remark comes through Brown’s account. No direct quote from Lewis appears in the available official statements, and police and prosecutors have not publicly confirmed the wording in the material used here.
Authorities have not publicly stated a motive for the shooting. They have not released an official minute-by-minute dispatch log showing exact times for the first shots, SWAT arrival, or the moment of custody beyond the early-morning frame and relative descriptions.
Seiber was shot three times. Relatives, including his wife, stayed by him at Penn Presbyterian Medical Center. Bethel described the department’s hope at the hospital, then the loss.
"He fought valiantly, but he lost his life today,"
Bethel also thanked the public for support after officials left the hospital that morning and said, “We had an immense amount of hope.” Police sources told CBS News Philadelphia that Seiber had recently completed SWAT training and hoped to transfer into that unit.
The wounded officer, still unnamed publicly in these accounts, was shot 12 times. Officials described him as a 33-year-old father of five. His name and a fuller medical update beyond Bethel’s warning have not been released in the public statements compiled here.
The New York Post reported the same West Philadelphia block, the Water Department tie to the accused, treatment at Penn Presbyterian Medical Center, and recovery of three firearms, including one belonging to a police officer, in coverage of the early Saturday attack and the official response that followed.
District Council 33’s president said Lewis is a union member and works for the Philadelphia Water Department. The department referred questions about the shooting to the city. In a public statement, the union said it was deeply shaken by the shooting involving two Philadelphia police officers, including Officer Shane Seiber, who was killed in the line of duty, expressed condolences, and said it would cooperate with the investigation.
Personnel action details from the Water Department, if any, have not been publicly spelled out in these reports.
At an afternoon news conference, Councilmember Curtis Jones pushed past empty ritual and pointed at the case file.
"Thoughts and prayers, I hate when people say that, thoughts and prayers. My thoughts and prayers, but our deeds with these charges are what I'm looking forward to at this point,"
Councilmember Jamie Gauthier framed the violence against neighborhood work already underway.
"Beyond the fact that this is incredibly tragic, it feels even more tragic because the community has been working so hard here to make things safer,"
Mayor Cherelle Parker stressed the human cost inside the badge and called the night a reminder of what officers carry.
"I want to be very clear, I am grateful for their service and the reason is because for nights like tonight. We think of them as law enforcement officers, but I see mothers and fathers, sons and daughters, brothers and sisters,"
Parker also used the moment to press Harrisburg. She said city leaders are seeking legislation that would expand involuntary commitment laws to cover not only severe mental illness, but substance use disorder and any kind of mental and/or behavioral challenge that could interfere with Philadelphia’s ability to keep itself safe. “I don’t apologize for it,” she added.
Nothing in the official statements compiled here alleges a specific mental-health or substance diagnosis for Lewis. Parker’s push was a policy demand after the bloodshed, not a clinical finding about the accused.
Gov. Josh Shapiro ordered U.S. and state flags to half-staff in Seiber’s honor and praised the men and women who run toward danger.
"Our law enforcement officers are the very best of us,"
Shapiro said officers put their lives on the line every day to keep fellow Pennsylvanians safe, not knowing if they will return home, and that the public owes them deepest gratitude.
U.S. Sen. John Fetterman said he was hoping for a full and speedy recovery for the other officer and called the attack a stark reminder of the dangerous job law enforcement has in keeping the public safe, and why gratitude for that service should be constant.
Krasner’s office has Lewis held without bail. A preliminary hearing is expected soon. That hearing is the first major court checkpoint, where prosecutors must show enough evidence for the case to move forward on the charged counts. Full discovery, ballistics attribution among the three recovered guns, and any formal account of how an officer’s handgun ended up among them remain for the investigative and court process to establish on the record.
What is already on the public record is stark enough: a gun call, officers down, a city employee in custody on murder and related charges, one family planning a funeral, and another still waiting on a hospital bed.
When officers take a gun call at 1 a.m., the law either backs them with swift, serious prosecution or it teaches every next armed suspect the wrong lesson. Philadelphia is about to show which path it means.
