FBI treating shooting ambush of officer as terrorist attack

“This guy tried to execute the police officer”, Police Commissioner Richard Ross Jr. said at a news conference last week.

FBI Director James Comey spoke to reporters on Wednesday.

Comey said the FBI is investigating the incident as a terrorist attack, after Archer’s comments that the shooting was in support of the Islamic State.

According to reports, local and federal authorities are investigating the possibility that Archer is part of a larger group of radical actors intent on attacking police.

According to Philadelphia police, Archer, 30, opened fire on Hartnett’s cruiser as it drove down a Philadelphia street last week.

Images released by police from surveillance video show the gunman – wearing an ankle-length, white garment – on a crosswalk taking aim and firing at the patrol auto at close range.

Hartnett has undergone extensive surgeries to fix the damage to his arm, which was left “shattered” and has a long road of recovery ahead of him, the Philadelphia Fraternal Order of Police President John McNesby told NBC10. After being struck a series of times, Hartnett got out of his vehicle and returned fire, hitting the shooter.

Comey met with the media later Thursday afternoon and confirmed his organization was investigating the incident as a terrorist attack.

Police said Archer was armed with a Glock 17 pistol stolen from a police officer’s home in 2014.

Archer was charged with attempted murder but hasn’t entered a plea.

CBS Philadelphia station KYW reported Sunday that police and the FBI were investigating a tip that Archer was part of a larger plot.

Jacob Bender, the executive director of the Philadelphia chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, an advocacy group, said he contacted about five inner-city mosques and found no one who knew of Archer, the AP has reported. His mother told The Philadelphia Inquirer he had been hearing voices. The meeting on terrorism Thursday night in Southwest Philadelphia was perhaps a first for Williams and other officials.

Archer was treated and released into police custody.