Police: Career Criminal Slayed Officer

PHILADELPHIA - Police said a career criminal - with nine prior arrests for everything from robbery to assault to weapons possession - pulled the trigger that killed Officer John Pawlowski.

Video: New Details On Officer Shooting Suspect

An irate Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey Saturday railed against a criminal justice system that would allow accused cop killer 33-year-old Rasheed Scrugs on the street.

Scrugs was due in court Monday for his most recent car theft case.

"It makes absolutely no sense that we've got people with this mind set walking the streets, not only endangering police officers but the public at large," Ramsey said at a news conference. "Lock them up. Throw away the key. Build another prison. Don't let 'em out."

Friday night, police said Scrugs assaulted and robbed a taxi driver at Broad Street and Olney Avenue. During the fight, the cab driver said he was going to call police, and Scrugs responded, "'If you call the police, I'm going to shoot you and I'm going to shoot any officers that respond to the scene,'" said Captain James Clark of Philadelphia Police Homicide Unit.

When Officer John Pawlowski and two other officers arrived, they asked Scrugs to take his hands out of the long jacket he was wearing but he didn't comply, Clark said. He then fired several shots from a .357 magnum in his coat pocket, fatally wounding Pawlowski.

Two other officers began firing at the suspect, hitting him several times. Scrugs remained in critical condition at a hospital Saturday, and was charged with first-degree murder, attempted murder and other counts, police said.

"He wasn't hit enough. That's the only thing that matters," said Ramsey.

Ramsey said the 25-year-old Pawlowski specifically wanted to work in the busy 35th District. Seven months ago, he found himself in hand-to-hand combat with an armed suspect on a crowded SEPTA bus - a life or death struggle he recounted to Fox 29 News.

"I'm just happy everyone on the bus was safe as well as myself. My theory is I'm going home, no matter what it takes," said Officer Pawlowski in June 2008.

Last week, the police department awarded Pawlowski a medal for his valor. Days later, he became the fifth officer killed in the line of duty in six months.

"You have a lot of angry police officers on the street, and they have a right to be," Fraternal Order of Police President John McNesby said.

Police are trying to trace Scrugs' gun.They said he emptied the chamber in the gun battle, but had 19 spare bullets in his pocket  - along with a sizable amount of crack cocaine.

"Rehabilitation has not kicked in. There are some people that are just not salvageable. Period. And he's one of 'em," says Ramsey.

Scrugs (a.k.a. Kevin Anderson and Rasheed Abdulghaffer) has a lengthy rap sheet that includes arrests for armed robbery, auto theft and firearms violations, police said. He served five years in state prison from 1997 to 2002, and then violated his parole and served six more months. He also had an open case for auto theft.