Police: Suspect May Have Used Mother's Gun to Kill Officer

Nov 04, 09:00 PM

Current Headlines: PHILADELPHIA _ Investigators searched intently through the night for the "armed and dangerous" 21-year-old high school dropout who they say may have used his mother's gun to kill Officer Chuck Cassidy.

Police issued an arrest warrant Sunday for John Lewis after a person close to his family told investigators on Saturday that they believed Lewis was the man who fatally shot Cassidy on Wednesday during an armed robbery in West Oak Lane. Cassidy, 54, died the next day.

After receiving the tip, investigators immediately went to the houses of Lewis' mother and grandmother on Roosevelt Boulevard. By midnight, they were still interviewing people familiar with the suspect.

Sometime before dawn, police developed sufficient evidence to issue the warrant. Authorities believe Lewis had visited his mother's house on Saturday afternoon, only hours before police arrived.

There is a $153,000 reward for the conviction of Cassidy's killer.

Police said Lewis' mother, Lynn Dyches, is a corrections officer for the Philadelphia Prison System. They suspect Lewis used his mother's 9 mm semiautomatic to hold up the Dunkin' Donuts on North Broad Street and shoot Cassidy.

The officer was killed as he entered the shop while the robbery was taking place. Police said the assailant wheeled and shot Cassidy in the head from five feet away.

Police have not recovered the murder weapon. The suspect also is believed to have at least one other gun: Cassidy's 9mm Glock service pistol, taken from the officer's side after he fell.

"He is armed and extremely dangerous," Police Commissioner Sylvester M. Johnson said of Lewis at a news conference Sunday morning. "John, if you're listening to us, please turn yourself in."

Lewis is described as 6 feet, 2 inches tall and 270 pounds, a black man with a medium complexion, short cropped hair, and scruffy facial hair. From a surveillance video of the shooting, the suspect appears to have a distinctive gait.

Police said Lewis has two tattoos: the initials "HP," for Hunting Park, on his right hand; and the initials "NP" for North Philly, on his left hand. The suspect does not have a spider web tattoo, as authorities initially announced.

Police said the suspect's family was cooperating with investigators. Lewis' grandmother pleaded through the media for Lewis to surrender.

"John, this is Big Mama. I love you. We want you safe," Vernetha Glover Henry, the suspect's grandmother, said outside her Roosevelt Boulevard home in Hunting Park.

The suspect, who is known to frequent North Philadelphia and the lower Northeast, also goes by the name Jordan Lewis and sometimes uses Jordan as his last name.

Police advised the public to not to approach the suspect, but to call their hot line: 215-683-8888.

Police said they are concerned because they believe the suspect is not afraid to pull the trigger and so an arrest attempt might endanger other officers or the public.

"This male has no hesitation in shooting a person," said Johnson. "If he can shoot a person in uniform as he's coming into a restaurant, coming into a Dunkin' Donuts place, he's liable to shoot anybody."

Added Johnson: "We're begging him. We're pleading for him to turn himself in before anyone else is hurt in the city of Philadelphia."

Lewis, who attended Olney High School only a few blocks from his mother's house, has been arrested before, but not for violent crimes.

In 2005, he was arrested and charged with possession of drugs and possession with intent to distribute. He was placed in a treatment program, which he completed in February.

Four months later, Lewis was arrested again on drug charges. That case is still pending.

The announcement of an arrest warrant energized weary investigators, who had worked nonstop since Wednesday to find the killer of one of their brethren.

While the reward grew massively from donations, police were inundated with numerous tips, many of which led to dead ends.

As the investigation dragged into the weekend, homicide detectives seemed to grow weary. Typically impeccably groomed, the detectives appeared unshaven, scruffy and with their shirt sleeves rolled.

But the news that investigators had identified a suspect seemed to lift the spirits of the task force that had taken up residence on the third floor of the Police Headquarters.

"We will continue to work around the clock until this person is in custody," Johnson said.

Glover Henry, the suspect's grandmother, called Lewis "a teddy bear." She said she last spoke by telephone with her grandson on Friday. She said she did not know at that time that he had any possible connection to Cassidy's shooting

She and other relatives said Lewis is the only son of Dyches, 37, a corrections officer. Dyches could not be reached for comment; nobody responded to a knock on her door.

Lewis, who has two younger sisters, is not married. According to his family, he is a new father _ and has a 3-month-old daughter, Natasha.

His grandmother said Lewis is one of 32 grandchildren who frequently would stop at her house for a meal, or for "safe haven," a place to spend the night, or a few weeks. She last saw him a week ago when she took him to apply for a job.

Glover Henry, 57, a retired city highway department road crew chief, said she does not believe her grandson is a killer.

"I don't know what would make him do something like that, what would set him off. I don't think my baby did this," she said.

She pleaded for him to phone home.

"John ... find a way to contact me so I can get you some help. I don't want you to get hurt. I love you, we all love you."

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