My Philly Daily On Crime Column: The Murder Of A Philadelphia Police Officer

 Philly Daily ran my On Crime column today.

You can read the column via the below link or the following text:

 Paul Davis: The murder of a Philadelphia Police Officer – Philly Daily

On the Philadelphia Police Department’s Facebook page, the department stated it is mourning the loss of Officer Shane Seiber, a 40-year-old, 10-year veteran who was fatally shot while responding to a call in West Philadelphia early Saturday morning, October 10, 2026.

“Officer Seiber was assigned to the department’s 19th District. Shortly before 1 a.m., Seiber and his partner responded to the 100 block of North 52nd Street for a report of a man armed with a firearm on the porch of a residence. According to Police Commissioner Kevin Bethel, the officers came under heavy gunfire as they approached the property.

“Officer Seiber was struck three times. His partner, a 33-year-old officer and father of five, was shot 12 times.

“As additional officers rushed to the scene, the gunman reportedly continued firing at responding personnel. Fellow officers immediately worked to evacuate their critically wounded colleagues, carrying them into patrol vehicles and rushing them to Penn Presbyterian Medical Center. Despite emergency medical intervention, Officer Seiber succumbed to his injuries.”

According to the Facebook post, his partner survived and was subsequently reported in stable condition, although Commissioner Bethel cautioned that he was still “not out of the woods.”

A suspect was later taken into custody after SWAT officers located him hiding in a tree.

“Officer Seiber leaves behind his wife, a 7-year-old son, and a 3-year-old daughter. He served the people of Philadelphia for a decade, answering calls for help and confronting the dangers that come with protecting the community. His death is a devastating loss for his family, fellow officers, and the entire Philadelphia Police Department.”

The Officer Down Memorial Page has recognized Officer Seiber’s line-of-duty death, listing his end of watch as October 10, 2026.

“As we remember Officer Seiber, we also recognize the extraordinary courage of the officers who rushed into danger to rescue their wounded colleagues.

Rest in peace, Officer Shane Seiber. Thank you for your service and sacrifice. Our deepest condolences go out to his wife, children, family, friends, and brothers and sisters in blue.”

According to the police and the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office, a suspect, Eric Lewis, is facing a list of charges in connection with Seiber’s killing, including murder, homicide of a law enforcement officer and multiple weapons offenses. 

Police Commissioner Kevin Bethel spoke to reporters the morning after the shooting. 

“He fought valiantly, but he lost his life today,” Bethel said at a morning news conference. “His wife was able to be by his side before he passed, as well as his family.”

Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle Parker said Seiber “paid the ultimate price while sacrificing his own life to protect and serve our city.” 

The mayor announced that she will seek legislation that expands Pennsylvania’s involuntary commitment laws to cover substance use disorders and other mental or behavioral health conditions and would work with state officials.

The other officer, a 33-year-old father of five children, was shot 12 times and was in critical condition. After going into surgery, Bethel said he is now in stable condition but is “not out of the woods yet.”

Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner outlined a series of charges against Lewis, including attempted murder, attempted homicide of a law enforcement officer, aggravated assault and firearms offenses.

Krasner stated that his prosecutors have identified 11 additional victims, which included the two officers who were shot and nine others who were fired upon. He outlined nine additional counts of attempted murder and attempted homicide of a law enforcement officer involving those nine people.

According to the Philadelphia Police, Lewis had two handguns and a shotgun in his possession. One of the handguns belonged to one of the officers who had been shot.

Ralph Cipriano, an investigative journalist and a frequent critic of District Attorney Krasner, wrote in his Big Trial Substack page that both the police and the DA were responsible for Lewis, a repeated offender, still being on the street. 

“On three occasions, Larry Krasner’s DAO failed to stop Eric Lewis before he allegedly killed a cop,” Cipriano wrote. 

“But the DAO is not the only guilty party in this tragedy. The police also screwed up big time. Let’s start with the DAO’s failure to prosecute Lewis for previous crimes.

“The story begins on Aug. 22, 2020, when police arrested Lewis on a charge of intentional possession of a controlled substance. But when the case went to court on Dec. 10, 2020, the charge was voluntarily withdrawn by prosecutors. On Sept. 30, 2020, Lewis was arrested and charged with endangering the welfare of children, terroristic threats, reckless endangerment, firearms not to be carried without a license, and carrying firearms in public.

“When the case went to court, however, on July 21, 2022, according to the court docket, a witness who turned out to be the complainant was “unavailable due to illness.”

“When a key witness is ill, a prosecutor has the option of taking a deposition from the witness at home or at the hospital. But the D.A.’s office under Larry Krasner apparently failed to do anything to preserve the complainant’s testimony. On Nov. 16, 2022, according to the court docket, all five charges against Lewis were nolle prossed, or voluntarily dropped, because the complainant is deceased.

“In a press release issued today, Krasner claimed that the DAO was blameless for not being able to successfully prosecute Lewis for that 2020 incident. Defendant Eric Lewis was also charged with assault and gun offenses in another matter,” Krasner wrote. “The case was successfully held over for trial by our office but never went to trial due to the death (by natural causes) of the key victim/witness.”

In the fall of 2020, Lewis was arrested a third time, this time for murder. The arrest stemmed from an alleged road rage incident on Aug. 31, 2019, where Lewis was accused of shooting 32-year-old Christopher Williams to death.

When the case went to trial in 2023, however, it was marred by the misconduct of a homicide detective, and another officer who was a witness in the case.

At the end of a bench trial, Common Pleas Court Judge Scott O’Keefe ruled that prosecutors hadn’t proved their case, and he found Lewis not guilty.

In a Youtube video, Krasner said the prior homicide case against Lewis was “deeply flawed,” and that the conduct of one former officer, Nyeem Crawley, was “arguably criminal.”

To me, the murder of a police officer is one of the most heinous crimes committed today. Anyone who is bold enough and bent enough to murder a police officer is a total outlaw. Considering that a police officer is armed and backed up by thousands of fellow armed officers who will pursue the cop killer with every resource, the cop killer is stupid fearless, and he will kill anyone, anywhere and anytime. 

Thankfully, Lewis was caught, hiding in a tree, so let’s hope he receives a just punishment. 

Paul Davis’s On Crime column appears here each week. He is also a contributor to Broad + Liberty and Counterterrorism magazine. He can be reached via pauldavisoncrime.com.