Authorities released surveillance photographs Monday of the suspect who fatally shot an off-duty Philadelphia police officer and seriously injured another man.
Alhassane Barry, 29, who joined the PPD two years ago and was assigned to Southwest Philadelphia’s 12th District, died after he was shot at around 3:30 a.m. Sunday outside a lounge on the 7200 block of Elmwood Avenue in Eastwick.
Deputy Police Commissioner Frank Vanore, during a news briefing Monday afternoon, said Barry and the other victim, a 35-year-old man, encountered the shooter inside the establishment.
“We recovered evidence that showed they had words. We don’t know what those words were,” he told reporters. “That prompts them to go outside rather quickly.”
The verbal dispute then escalated into a physical conflict, and the suspect pulled away, brandished a gun and opened fire, Vanore said. Investigators recovered eight 9mm shell casings from the scene, according to law enforcement officials.
Barry was rushed to Penn Presbyterian Medical Center, where he died at around 7:45 a.m. Sunday. Funeral services were held Monday.
The 35-year-old man remained hospitalized Monday but has been upgraded to stable condition, Vanore said.
Detectives described the shooter as a man in his mid-to-late 20s who is about 6 feet tall with a thin-to-medium build. At the time of the killing, he was wearing a blue surgical mask, a large wristwatch and had a long keychain hanging from the back of his black pants.
Police said he came to the lounge on foot from the area of 73rd Street and Buist Avenue, and he fled southbound on 73rd in the aftermath of the shooting.
Anyone with information is asked to contact the PPD’s Homicide Unit at 215-686-TIPS (8477) or call or text the police tip line at 215-686-TIPS (8477).
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