PHILADELPHIA  (VINnews) — A 10-year Philadelphia police veteran was killed and a second officer was critically wounded early Saturday when a city Water Department employee ambushed them outside a West Philadelphia home, authorities said.

Officer Shane Seiber, 40, a married father of a 7-year-old son and 3-year-old daughter, was shot three times and died at Penn Presbyterian Medical Center shortly after 9 a.m., Police Commissioner Kevin Bethel said. His wife and other family members were at his bedside. Seiber, assigned to the 19th District, had served since 2016. A 33-year-old partner with nine years on the force and five children was shot 12 times; he remained hospitalized in stable but guarded condition as of Sunday.​

Officers responded shortly after midnight to the 100 block of North 52nd Street following a report of a man with a gun on a porch. As they approached, 35-year-old Eric Lewis opened fire, striking both officers, Bethel said. Lewis then took one of the officers’ weapons, retreated into a rear alley, and continued shooting at nine additional officers who arrived, none of whom were hit. SWAT personnel located Lewis hiding in a tree roughly an hour later; he was taken into custody without serious injury. Police recovered a shotgun and two handguns, including one belonging to an injured officer.​

Lewis, a trades helper for the Philadelphia Water Department since 2024 earning about $47,700 annually, faces more than 70 charges, including murder, homicide of a law enforcement officer, multiple counts of attempted murder and attempted homicide of law enforcement officers, disarming an officer, and weapons offenses. He was arraigned Sunday and is being held without bail at Curran-Fromhold Correctional Facility. The Defender Association of Philadelphia is representing him.​

Court records show Lewis has a criminal history dating to 2012 that includes a conviction for theft and receiving stolen property (two years’ probation), a 2015 conviction for carrying a firearm in public and simple assault (five years’ probation, plus later court supervision), and a 2018 disorderly-conduct conviction involving fighting (additional probation). District Attorney Larry Krasner said Lewis had no felony convictions that would have barred him from legally possessing a firearm. Krasner described the shooting as a “brutal, senseless, horrific killing.”​

District Council 33 of AFSCME, which represents municipal workers, confirmed Lewis’s employment and condemned the violence, saying it does not reflect the union’s standards. Mayor Cherelle Parker met with the officers’ families and called Seiber’s death the ultimate sacrifice. Gov. Josh Shapiro ordered flags lowered in Seiber’s honor. The incident is the fourth line-of-duty death of a Philadelphia officer in three years.

Bethel said the department is mourning while continuing its work, and investigators are reviewing body-worn camera footage. No additional injuries to officers or civilians were reported.