In Death-Penalty Phase, Philly Cop Describes Death Of Fellow Officer
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- A Philadelphia police officer struggled to control his emotions today as he described the shooting last year that killed a fellow officer.
Defendant Rasheed Scrugs (above), 35, has pleaded guilty, and now the jury must decide on the penalty: death, or life in prison without parole.
Police officer Stephen Macuso testified that he arrived on the crime scene, at Broad and Olney, as fellow officer John Pawlowski (right) and Mark Klein approached Scrugs, and Scrugs suddenly fired.
Mancuso says he knew Pawlowski had been hit because his body tensed up.
And then Mancuso says he, too, came under fire and a bullet whizzed by his arm.
There was a gunfight, and Scrugs was shot and fell.
Officer Mancuso has testified that they lifted the wounded Officer Pawlowski into a patrol car and rushed him to the hospital. Mancuso was in the back seat with the dying officer, who was unresponsive.
Soon after they got to the hospital, Officer John Pawlowski, 25 -- a husband and soon-to-be father -- was pronounced dead.
Shortly before his trial was to begin last week, Scrugs pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in the February 2009 death of Pawlowski (see related story).
Another officer testified Friday about the death of Pawlowski, the last of seven city officers slain in the line of duty over a period of less than three years. He said they were answering a report of an attempted robbery of a cab driver in North Philadelphia.
A cab driver and a bystander also testified that Scrugs warned the driver not to call the police and added, "If you call the cops I'll shoot you and the cops." See previous story
Stay tuned to CBS 3 and KYW Newsradio 1060 for coverage of the testimony and jury deliberations.
