Wounded officer's partner recounts chaotic struggle

Source: The Philadelphia InquirerSept.迷你倉 05--Philadelphia Police Officer John Bucceroni said no one saw the gun as he and three other officers struggled to handcuff a "freakishly strong" Eric Torres on the floor of a Feltonville corner grocery."Give me hands, give me hands; dame manos, dame manos!" Bucceroni said he screamed in English and Spanish as he reached over the prone Torres and grabbed for his right hand.Instead, Bucceroni said, he felt his hand on the barrel of a gun and shouted, "Dame pistola!"The gun fired and Bucceroni said he heard his partner, Officer Edward Davies."Officer Davies made a sound -- 'ooh' -- and then made the comment, 'I think I've been shot,' " before falling to the floor, Bucceroni testified at Wednesday's preliminary hearing for Torres, 31, of Feltonville.Bucceroni's testimony depicted the confined chaos on Aug. 13, as four officers struggled to subdue Torres on the floor of the Almonte Mini Market at Fourth and Annsbury Streets.It was also dramatically different from the first accounts of Davies' shooting. Police initially said Torres had pulled his gun and shoved it under Davies' bulletproof vest before pulling the trigger.Bucceroni, however, testified that Torres was on the floor on his right side, hands clasped at his waistband, and struggling against Bucceroni and two other officers trying to cuff him.Davies, 41, was standing, facing the struggling group on the floor, when the gun discharged and the six-year veteran officer was hit in the abdomen.Police Officer Tanya Little, a department spokeswoman, said officials would not comment on the differences between initial reports of the shooting and court testimony."Remember, this is a continuing investigation," Little said.The disparate accounts of the shooting were not addressed at the hearing. Instead, Bucceroni stressed how each officer glimpsed only a part of the action."I was focusing on his hands, I really didn't see what else was happening," Bucceroni said.The struggle with Torres "lasted maybe five to 10 minutes, but seemed like an eternity," Bucceroni said.Torres twice bi自存倉 him on the wrist before he could take the gun away, the officer said."He bit down like a pit bull, like he was eating a piece of steak," Bucceroni testified.Defense attorney Catherine Berryman cited Bucceroni's testimony in arguing that Municipal Court Judge James M. DeLeon should dismiss charges of attempted murder and assaulting police officers. There was no evidence Torres aimed the gun at Davies or the other officers, she said.Assistant District Attorney Edgar Jaramillo, however, said the gun fired because Torres' finger was on the trigger. Jaramillo argued that Torres could have fired the semiautomatic repeatedly at the officers just inches away had the spent cartridge not jammed, preventing the pistol from firing again.DeLeon agreed, telling Berryman, "If his finger is on the trigger, he's in control of the gun . . . . It's just that simple."The judge ordered Torres held on charges of attempted murder, aggravated assault, assault on police officers, and related counts.Police said Torres fled into the Feltonville grocery after a police chase that began when officers stopped his silver 1998 BMW at Fifth Street and Allegheny Avenue for a broken taillight.Bucceroni said that when he and Davies arrived at the grocery about 12:40 p.m., two other officers were already trying to stop Torres from running up a stairwell in the rear of the store.The four of them dragged Torres to the front of the store, fell to the ground and began trying to handcuff the struggling suspect.Davies, a married father of four, lost a large amount of blood and had a kidney removed because of the damage caused by the single shot from a .45-caliber pistol.Bucceroni, who said he visits Davies daily, said the wounded officer has been removed from sedation and had his breathing tube taken out."Yesterday, I think he took his first steps," Bucceroni said.Contact Joseph A. Slobodzian at 215-854-2985, jslobodzian@phillynews.com, or @joeslobo on Twitter.Copyright: ___ (c)2013 The Philadelphia Inquirer Visit The Philadelphia Inquirer at .philly.com Distributed by MCT Information Services迷你倉新蒲崗