Philadelphia police officer charged with murder for fatal shooting of 12-year-old TJ Siderio in the back

A former plainclothes Philadelphia police officer who shot and killed a 12-year-old boy who allegedly fired into the rear window of an unmarked patrol car has been charged with his murder.

Edsaul Mendoza faces charges of first- and third-degree murder, voluntary manslaughter and possessing an instrument of crime in the death of Thomas “TJ” Siderio, Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner announced Monday.

He turned himself in Sunday night and is being held without bail.

On March 1, Mendoza and three other plainclothes officers on the South Task Force were in South Philly investigating a social media post about a teenager with a gun when TJ allegedly fired into their car, an unmarked, dark-colored Chevy Cruze.

[ Philadelphia cop who fatally shot 12-year-old boy in the back will be fired: police commissioner ]

Mendoza and another officer, Kwaku Sarpong, got out to chase TJ and each fired one shot at the fleeing boy, according to Commissioner Danielle Outlaw. Sarpong then held back while Mendoza kept chasing him, firing twice. One bullet hit TJ in the upper right back and exited through his left chest.

TJ was rushed to Penn Presbyterian Medical Center and pronounced dead 20 minutes later.

The 9mm Taurus semiautomatic handgun that TJ allegedly fired, then tossed was found five houses away from where he was killed, according to the district attorney’s office.

Mendoza was less than half a car’s length from Siderio when he fired the third shot, close enough that he would have been able to “see Siderio clearly,” Krasner said Monday. The officer was standing above the boy, who was on the ground, when he fired.

“Mendoza knew that TJ Siderio was unarmed before he shot him through the back,” Krasner said.

Mendoza also allegedly lied about his position in relation to TJ when he fired the final two shots, then changed his commands from “drop the gun” to “get down.” That implies that TJ had already dropped the gun at that point, Krasner said.

Asked if he considered this an assassination, Krasner said it was important that he “not characterize it.” Instead, he said, he would leave that up to a Philadelphia jury.

“I find this very very disturbing and very difficult to watch,” the district attorney said of the videos of the shooting, which have not been publicly released.

Mendoza was fired a few weeks after the shooting, with Outlaw noting that “it was clear that the use-of-force policy was violated.”

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Mendoza and the other undercover officers were pointed in TJ’s direction on the fateful night by an Instagram account allegedly run by a 17-year-old identified only as NK, who was “tangentially connected to a stolen firearm investigation involving a third person — Santo Primerano,” according to an arrest affidavit obtained by the Daily News Monday.

When they spotted NK, he was standing around with TJ. Sarpong put on his emergency lights and the boys fled, but not before a bullet pierced the back window of the car.

That’s when Mendoza chased after them, eventually firing three times and killing TJ.

“Mendoza does not take cover during his approach, which would have been the tactically correct decision if he believed (TJ) Siderio remained armed,” the affidavit reads. “Instead, he chooses to follow the ‘exact opposite’ tactical strategy that would be expected if he thought there was ‘any possibility’ that (TJ) Siderio remained armed.”

When another undercover officer, Alexander Camacho, asked where the gun was located, Mendoza said TJ had thrown it “somewhere around there” and pointed away from the crime scene, according to the affidavit.

The gun was found down the street.

“When P0 Mendoza fired the third and fatal shot, he knew that 12-year-old, 5-foot-tall, 111-pound Thomas Siderio no longer had a gun,” the affidavit reads, “and therefore, no ability to harm him.”

Source: nydailynews