A knife-wielding assailant was shot by police on Sunday night after he broke into a home on Wildey Street and terrorized the people inside, authorities said.
According to Officer Tanya Little, a police spokeswoman, when officers responded to an 11:40 p.m. call of a man vandalizing the 1100 block of Schackamaxon St., they encountered a chaotic scene.
They saw a man weighing roughly 300 pounds dashing around the street and damaging a light post. He fled as officers came on the scene, and the man burst through the front door of a home on the 200 block of E. Wildey St., where he “terrorized the people” with a knife, Little said. Adults and children — who did not know the assailant — were in the home at the time, she added.
Officers then confronted the man and asked him to drop his weapon.
“He refused, then he continues and actively comes after the officers while swinging the knife,” Little said on Monday.
The assailant was shot in the chest as he allegedly lunged at police. He was taken to Hahnemann University Hospital. Little said he was in critical but stable condition.
ldquo;He’s expected to survive,” she said.
Police are withholding the man’s identity. The investigation is ongoing and police are unsure if he was under the influence of drugs or had any history of mental illness, Little said. ••
