The black suspect who shot and killed a white Philadelphia police officer and severely wounded another told officers that the shooting was racially motivated, according to an arrest report and law enforcement sources.
Philadelphia Police Officer Shane Seiber was fatally shot and a second officer wounded in the early hours of October 11, while they were responding to a report of a person with a gun on the 100 block of North 52nd Street in West Philadelphia. The suspect, 35-year-old Eric Lewis, was later apprehended in a nearby tree.
A neighbor called 911 around 12:17 a.m. reporting a person with a gun outside a home. Officers Seiber, 40, a 10-year veteran who joined the force in 2016, and his 33-year-old partner arrived near 12:50 a.m.
After Seiber knocked on the door, Lewis approached from across the street, asked why police were on the porch, and became aggressive after officers inquired whether he lived there. As they officers attempted to ascertain whether Lewis was armed, he opened fire, striking Seiber three times and the second officer 12 times. Lewis continued firing as the officers lay wounded, yelling for them to get off the porch, then retreated into an alley.
Additional officers arrived shortly after 1 a.m., found the two wounded on the porch, and transported them. Sieber, a father of two young children, was pronounced dead roughly three hours later. The second officer, a father of five with nine years on the job, remained hospitalized in stable condition as of this report.
Lewis fired at nine more officers who responded to the alley, though none were hit. After a nearly hour-long standoff, SWAT located him in a tree roughly two stories up. He asked officers not to shoot, said he wanted to end the situation peacefully, and was taken into custody. Police recovered a shotgun and two handguns; one 9mm Glock service weapon belonged to the injured officer and was loaded with a magazine from Seiber’s belt.
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BREAKING: I have obtained the official arrest report for Eric Lewis– the man accused of shooting and killing 40-year-old Philadelphia Police Officer Shane Seiber.
According to the report, Lewis told the arresting officers that he shot and killed Officer Seiber, and wounded… pic.twitter.com/sCIrVc9LL3
— Greg Price (@greg_price11) October 12, 2026
At Jefferson University Hospital, where Lewis was treated for a head injury, he spoke with officers for nearly two hours. According to the arrest report, he stated that if the cops were black he would not have shot them, and that he shot the officers because they were white.
He further told a black female officer that if she had responded they would have just had a conversation. He also said the officers should not have come onto his porch or put hands on him, that “I did what I did because they did what they did,” and that because they were white they automatically grabbed him.
The report also notes that he made racist remarks to white officers, including statements that he makes more money than them, and claimed that if he were white the officers would not have gripped him or pointed guns.
Lewis, a trades helper for the Philadelphia Water Department since 2024, faces 76 charges, including homicide of a law enforcement officer and murder in Seiber’s death, plus multiple counts of attempted homicide and attempted murder related to the second officer and the nine others fired upon, along with disarming a law enforcement officer, firearms offenses, and related counts.
Court records show prior convictions dating to 2012 for theft and receiving stolen property, a 2015 conviction involving carrying a firearm in public and simple assault, and a 2018 disorderly conduct conviction involving fighting. He received probation for all prior convictions.
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[ H/T Trending Politics ]
