Tevin Hammond and Justin Mackie were wanted in a string of murders and shootings around the city. But they weren't planning on going down without a fight, police said, and allegedly planned to shoot at any cops who tried to arrest them.
Yesterday afternoon, the pair got their wish for a shootout with police -- but it didn't exactly go as they hoped. After exchanging gunfire with Philly cops and FBI agents who tracked them down in East Mount Airy, according to police sources, Hammond, 21, wound up dead, and Mackie, 19, was hospitalized with six gunshot wounds.
Police spokesman Lt. John Stanford said cops and federal agents were in the area of Montana and Musgrave streets just after 1 p.m. yesterday looking for the pair, whom a police source identified for the Daily News. When officers found them, the pair immediately began shooting at them, Stanford said, and at least one Philadelphia cop and one FBI agent returned several shots, wounding both of them.
Hammond died at the scene, police said. Mackie was taken to Albert Einstein Medical Center in critical condition and was later upgraded to stable.
Stanford said police had been on the hunt for the gunslinging duo in connection with several shootings and homicides throughout North, West and Northwest Philadelphia, and that officers and agents on a task force received information that they were in East Mount Airy yesterday. Stanford said one of the shootings for which the men were wanted occurred during a robbery of a cabdriver at Chew Avenue and Hortter Street early last month.
Police also put out a wanted flier for Mackie after a warrant was issued for him in connection with the fatal shooting of Tyrone Hayes, 20, in the courtyard of North Philadelphia's Blumberg Apartments on July 15.
Stanford said investigators received information late last week that the pair planned to shoot at police who tried to arrest them.
"They were going to shootout with police," Stanford said. "They weren't going to be taken into custody."
Court records show that Hammond was found guilty of drug-dealing in 2012 and sentenced to five years' probation. Mackie, according to records, was arrested in September of last year for robbery, kidnapping, possession of an instrument of crime and several related offenses.
Stanford said police recovered one of the suspect's guns at the scene, and that several shots were fired between police, the FBI and the suspects. The shooting remains under investigation, and no police or federal agents were injured in the barrage of gunfire, Stanford said.
"I heard over the radio myself officers calling for an assist for shots fired," he said. "It was a very volatile situation."
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McClatchy-Tribune News Service
