Inset: Maurice Hill (Philadelphia Police). Background: Cops duck for cover after Hill started shooting at them in Philadelphia (KYW).
A man from Pennsylvania will spend his life in prison after shooting six police officers in Philadelphia during an attempted arrest on a drug-related warrant.
Maurice Hill, aged 41, received his sentence on Thursday, which ranges from 120 to 240 years. This follows a jury’s decision in May, where he was found guilty of multiple charges, including three attempted murder counts and nine counts each of aggravated assault and assaulting law enforcement officers.
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Hill fired more than 100 rounds at officers, who were pinned down and unable to escape to safety.
“I was being shot at and thought I was going to die,” an officer testified, according to local Fox affiliate WTXF.
Luckily, those officers shot all survived their injuries and were discharged from the hospital not long after arrival.
Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner, criticized by the U.S. Attorney for the district appointed by President Donald Trump, remarked that the sentence marks the end of one of the most severe incidents in Philadelphia’s criminal justice history.
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“Maurice Hill’s relentless barrage of bullets terrified an entire community and nearly took the lives of multiple people, including police and neighborhood residents. We are glad that justice was served in this case and that there was no loss of life,” he said in a statement.
The cops were trying to serve a warrant for his arrest in August 2019 when he opened fire. He barricaded himself in the home for hours before eventually surrendering. Hill claimed he was shooting in self-defense.
“We were arguing what was in his head at the time, and what he knew at the time. We weren’t debating he fired. We were debating why he fired,” said defense attorney Ellis Palividas, according to local ABC affiliate WPVI.
