A jury has convicted former Philly police officer Eric Ruch Jr. of voluntary manslaughter and possession of an instrument of crime in the 2017 shooting of an unarmed man, marking the first such conviction in at least a half-century or more.
of voluntary manslaughter and possession of an instrument of crime in the 2017 shooting of an unarmed man, marking the first such conviction in at least a half-century or more. The third-degree murder charge against him was dropped.
Ruch, as well as five other officers, testified during the five-day trial that they thought Plowden was reaching with his right hand for a gun in his jacket pocket. “The hand you can’t see is the hand that can hurt you,” Ruch said. The trial was the first such murder trial in Philadelphia in nearly 40 years. In the previous one, a jury in 1984 acquitted former Officer John Ziegler in the shooting death of a teenager.
Ruch shot Plowden at about 8:30 p.m. on Dec, 27, 2017, at the climax of a chaotic encounter on the streets of Olney. Defense lawyer David Mischak focused on how Plowden led police on a dangerous car chase after they spotted him driving a Hyundai highlighted in a “patrol alert” in a new murder investigation. The alert cautioned police that the unnamed occupants of the car might be armed and dangerous.
“From your days in the Police Academy to the streets of the 35th District, “ Comitalo said, “you are told that a concealed hand that you cannot see can kill you. It’s your biggest threat.”
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