3 SWAT team officers shot in Philadelphia

Three SWAT team officers were shot Wednesday morning in Philadelphia during a barricade situation.

The officers were hit by gunfire during a barricade situation in the city’s West Poplar neighborhood around 6 a.m., according to KYW-TV.

A civilian was also shot in the head during the incident and was being treated at the hospital. It was unknown if he was a suspect, the report said.

All three of the officers were in stable condition at a local hospital, the outlet reported.

The incident underscored the gun violence epidemic in the City of Brotherly Love, where murders had soared since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Philadelphia police had reported 424 homicides in 2022 through Wednesday, marking a 2% decrease from last year’s record-high murder rate, but a 58% increase since 2019. In comparison, New York City — home to nearly six times as many people as Philly — had recorded only 334 murders so far this year.

The issue of crime in Pennsylvania had taken center stage in the contest for the state’s hotly contested US Senate seat, now held by retiring GOP Sen. Pat Toomey.

Republican candidate Dr. Mehmet Oz, the television personality, had recently gained ground in the polls against Democratic candidate John Fetterman, who he has branded “soft on crime” in political attacks.

Oz, 62 had pointed to Fetterman’s prior endorsement of progressive Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner, who is facing impeachment from state GOP lawmakers over his “willful refusal … to enforce existing laws.”

Fetterman, 53, the state’s lieutenant governor, shot back at Oz’s claims during a campaign stop in Philly on Tuesday, championing a stretch of six murder-free years he presided over as mayor of the Braddock, a small town outside Pittsburgh, and doubling down on his work as an advocate for wrongfully convicted criminals, according to The Philadelphia Inquirer

Fetterman’s 9-percentage point summertime lead over the Donald Trump-backed political novice had recently shrunk to 3.7 percentage points, according to Real Clear Average, and the race — once an assured win for Democrats — was now a “toss up,” The Cook Report said last week.