PHILADELPHIA _ Following an hourlong standoff, a shooter who barricaded himself inside a building and fired multiple shots at Philadelphia police officers in the city's Frankford section Thursday is dead, officials said.
After the gunman, who had been on the second floor of a row house in the 4600 block of Hawthorne Street, shot at the officers, a SWAT team returned fire, striking the man, officials said.
No other injuries were reported in the standoff, which began about 1:05 p.m. local time.
Deputy Commissioner Robin Wimberly said state parole officers were serving an arrest warrant when the man began firing.
Around 2 p.m., police fired a round of beanbags at the building in attempts to break its windows.
Police units set up a secure zone around the scene and redirected traffic from the area, cautioning the public to stay away.
Everene Williams, who lives on the block where the standoff occurred, was not home when the shooting broke out, but she said her 21-year-old son was home at the time. She spoke to him a few times since the standoff began.
"He said our neighbor shot out the window a few times and police are trying to negotiate with him," she said.
Five schools were put on "lock-in" status during the shooting, as was a Head Start, officials said. Those lockdowns were lifted after the shooter was killed.
Meanwhile, parents in the area were frantic nearing the end of the school day as they tried to reach their children, some of whom attend the nearby Allen M. Stearne School.
Lekeisha Cleveland, 29, said she heard what sounded like more than 10 gunshots while inside her home on Mulberry Street, a block away from the scene. She walked out to find two of her children who attend Stearne, and was less than a block from the school when police told her to "run."
"My kids are stuck inside the school without their parents," Cleveland said of her 9-year-old son and 7-year-old daughter. "I just want my babies back."
Delilah Moses was trying to walk around the block to get closer to her 5-year-old, who's in first grade at Stearne.
"If anything happens," Moses, 40, said, "I can't get to my daughter."
Frankford Library was also closed due to the incident.
Further details about the circumstances behind the standoff were not immediately known.
