PHILADELPHIA _ Lawyer Shaka Mzee Johnson was watching coverage of Wednesday night's 7 {-hour standoff with police that left six officers shot, when his phone started getting messages that the shooter was someone he knew.
Police have identified Maurice Hill, 36, as the man who for nearly eight hours kept police from across the city at bay while shooting from the window of an apartment building on the 3700 block of N. 15th Street.
But Johnson knew him as a former client _ a client that was calling him from the active crime scene.
"He calls and just even the way he sounded I knew he was telling me it was him," said Johnson.
By midnight, Johnson had helped talk Hill into surrendering. He described his conversations Thursday in an interview at the Stout Criminal Justice Center.
A day after Hill surrendered, federal and local investigators are poring over Hill's lengthy criminal record _ filled with past arrests for violent crime, gun offenses and drug dealing _ for any clues that might shed light on Wednesday's violent episode.
Details of Hill's life are littered throughout the filings. He was known at times by the nickname "Gruff" and in 2007 was known to frequent the area around the Paschall Projects, a witness in one old case said.
In a 2011 sentencing, Hill told a judge he was a high school graduate. His lawyer told TV networks Hill had a child just two days ago.
Neighbors on the 3700 block of N. 15th Street, where the shooting played out, said Hill and his crew were known around the area and described the house in which Hill had holed up as a "stash house."
Eric Belfiore, 38, who lives at a recovery house nearby, said he didn't know Hill personally. But added he was part of a "squad."
"It's a gang. It's the 15th Street crew," Belfiore said. "He's a thorough dude. He's about his money."
Hill's history in the adult criminal justice system began in 2001 when he was 18 and arrested with a gun that had an altered serial number.
Public records show that he has been arrested about a dozen times since turning 18, and convicted six times on charges that involved illegal possession of guns, drug dealing, and aggravated assault. He has been in and out of prison; the longest sentence handed him came in 2010, when a federal judge gave him a 55-month term.
Along the way, he beat criminal charges on everything from kidnapping to attempted murder.
In May 2007, Hill was arrested in Southwest Philadelphia after fleeing police who spotted him carrying a handgun and wearing a bulletproof vest, court records show. Philadelphia cops spotted Hill on the 6000 block of Spruce Street with a loaded .357 Smith and Wesson in his waistband.
He ignored a cop's orders to stop and ran into a home on Spruce Street, leading police on a chase up to the second floor of the home. Hill "violently resisted" the officers," the records say. But police eventually arrested him and recovered the weapon.
Later that year, Hill was charged with attempting to kill another man, Donnell Robertson, by firing three shots at him on South Hobson and hitting him in the buttocks. Police recovered three .45-caliber weapons from the 2200 block of South Hobson Street.
As part of a plea deal, Hill pleaded guilty to the aggravated assault charge in June 2011 and was sentenced to 1 { to three years in prison.
But even while that case was playing out, Hill faced federal charges related to the weapons he was caught with. Hill agreed fairly early on to cooperate with a separate investigation into a July 2006 firefight that broke out in the courtyard of the Paschall Projects on Tate Place.
Court records also say Hill was involved in a fistfight with a Kahim Welton that ended with Welton shooting Hill five times in the legs. Hill was badly injured, requiring multiple surgeries that kept him hospitalized for a month.
But when questioned by police, Hill did not immediately identify his attacker. It was only later, when he faced the 2007 state and federal charges, that he agreed to cooperate with authorities.
He testified before a federal grand jury and later a Common Pleas court hearing, naming Welton as his shooter and another man for providing the gun. Hill hoped for leniency in for his own upcoming sentencings.
But when it came time for him to testify at the gunman's trial, Hill recanted his earlier testimony.
Hill was caught on recorded calls from prison telling his mother that he lied to spare the person who shot him. State prosecutors charged and convicted him with perjury.
Meanwhile, U.S. District Judge Paul S. Diamond sentenced Hill to 4 years and 7 months in federal prison in 2010 for his original 2007 weapons offenses.
Once released, Hill continued to violate both his state and federal probation. He appeared before Common Pleas Court Judge Rayford Means for three different alleged violations _ at least two of them related to new cases, which he later beat.
In one of those cases, Philadelphia police arrested Hill in May 2014, after spotting him driving an unregistered scooter. But when officers tried to stop him, he raced down an alleyway against traffic on a one-way street and then onto a sidewalk, sending pedestrians scattering, court records say. Hill crashed the scooter and then fled on foot but was apprehended. He was charged with driving without a license, recklessly endangering another person, and fleeing police, but later was acquitted on all counts.
Philadelphia police arrested Hill again in October 2014 on charges of drug possession and false imprisonment.
According to court filings, his accuser told police she had agreed to sell marijuana for Hill but then later changed her mind. When he summoned her to his house on Greenway Street in Southwest Philadelphia days later, she says, she overheard Hill and an associate discussing killing her.
Fearful for her life, the woman said, she called 911. When officers arrived, she fled as Hill and his associate hid the crack cocaine and marijuana in a tire out back. Investigators discovered 83 grams of marijuana.
Johnson, the lawyer, said he initially gave Hill a "tongue-lashing" when he heard from him during the standoff Wednesday night.
"But quickly transferred into, 'I need you to come out of there safe,'" Johnson said. "I said, "You gotta know the cops are pumped up on testosterone. Their brother officers have been hurt. The community's under siege, people locked out of their homes. They're not going to play with you for long, so I need you to come on out of there.
"So his concern over the next few hours was if he tried to surrender peacefully, they would still kill him."
Johnson said he then called Police Commissioner Richard Ross, who told him he had until 11:45 p.m. _ at which time police tactical units would be engaged.
He conveyed that warning, along with Ross' pledge to allow Hill to surrender without further violence. "I told him you got to trust someone. You know you can trust me."
By midnight, Hill came out of the house in handcuffs.
