Burden of proof: Raymond Pelzer was the fourth person killed by Philly police in a week.

Shot Clock

Cops are quicker on the draw these days.

by Kia Gregory

Last week, in response to the rise (up seven so far from last year), Mayor Street said police officers simply can't wait till they're fired upon to decide if their lives are in danger.

Louis Fornwald disagrees.

Sitting at his dining room table, which is covered with legal papers, protest fliers and pictures of his son Milo, Fornward slow boils with anger and pain.

"I tell people every day," says Fornwald, a small man with a warm face and a full head of silver hair, referring to how police shot and killed his son three years ago.

Fornwald is able to talk about Milo, his middle child, in short spurts. But then he has to stop and regroup as his eyes well with tears.

"He was growing up," says Fornwald, hesitatingly. "You don't get a lot of chances."

Somewhere along the way, Milo went from high school honor student to petty drug dealer.

Around 4:30 p.m. on June 10, 2003, at the intersection of Moyamensing and Moore in South Philadelphia, police officers assigned to Operation Safe Streets watched as a white woman stood at Milo's passenger window while his friend Kenny rolled her a $5 blunt.

The cops pulled in front of the car, and Kenny jumped out and ran. Milo put the car in reverse, hitting a SEPTA bus, then pulled forward, hitting the police cruiser's bumper.

Standing in front of the car, officer Fred Girardo yelled for Milo to stop. When he didn't, Girardo, 31 and a six-year veteran of the force, fired into the windshield. The first bullet hit Milo in the shoulder. The second struck him in the head.

Milo faced charges of aggravated and simple assault, possession of an instrument of crime, recklessly endangering another person and narcotics violations.

He died the next day.

Days after the shooting, Milo's family and friends marched and protested outside the neighborhood's 4th District police headquarters.

Two days before Christmas a police investigation concluded Girardo had fired his weapon unnecessarily. He was transferred to another precinct and given additional firearms training.

Fornwald put copies of the investigation memo with "KILLER COP!" scrawled in thick black marker on newspaper honor boxes throughout his South Philadelphia neighborhood.

Almost a year later police settled Fornwald's civil complaint for $240,000.

Though he was never big on religion, Fornwald says he's found a place for that since his son's death. He says his wife and 12-year-old daughter Alisa, who's both smart and beautiful, keep his anger from boiling over.

And he has three boys ages 29, 24 and 20 to keep safe.

"I tell them to keep a low profile," he says of their dealings with police. "It's just tentative ... day to day."

Mayor Street says the recent rise in shootings by cops is yet more evidence that the city's awash in guns. According to the Inquirer, shootings by police jumped from two in 2001 under top cop John Timoney to 14 under Sylvester Johnson three years later. Last week Street criticized people who would "second guess" officers.

He said he doesn't expect police officers to wait and see if it's a gun or a cell phone a suspect's pulling out.

Fornwald is certain the Pelzer family, who buried their 25-year-old boy last Friday, disagrees.

On April 27 Raymond Pelzer was playing dice near his West Philadelphia home when police on a routine pedestrian stop asked for the players' IDs.

Pelzer took off running. The cop gave chase and called for backup.

In a nearby alley Pelzer's cell phone was mistaken for a gun, and he became the fourth person killed by Philly police in a week.

Fornwald joined a recent protest outside 19th District police headquarters. Since his son's death, watching the police has become a mission, because he suspects they prey on young black and Latino men in poor neighborhoods.

At last week's press conference the mayor pointed out the obvious: "Guns are everywhere!"

So far this year 127 Philadelphians have been murdered. That number's on pace with last year's high of 380 homicides. Guns are blamed for most of those murders.

Street's take: "I don't know how we get our arms around all the violence we have in the community if everywhere you go somebody has a gun."

Let's hope the next mayor has a better idea, a plan that goes beyond blaming the community and President Bush, beyond catch-phrased initiatives like Operation Safer Streets. What's needed is a plan that protects not only the cops but also the neighborhoods where children get shot on the way to school.

This year, in nine of the 12 shootings, the person police shot had a gun. "To kill or be killed often involves a split-second decision," Commissioner Johnson told the Daily News last week. "When cops are confronted by a person with a gun, they have to react."

Police policy prohibits cops from firing at fleeing individuals who present no imminent threat. Deadly force should be used only as a last resort, and then only to protect life.

Thinking back, Fornwald wonders why the cop who shot his kid didn't just shoot out his tires or try to get away.

Speculation like that won't bring back his son. But watching all the raging gun violence in the city, Fornwald does take some solace.

"A lot of people who are killed don't know who did it," says Fornwald. "Our killer has a face."