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发帖数: 1 | 1 by Rodrigo Torrejón
Updated 5 hours ago
A retired emergency medicine physician and professor who was struck by a
Philadelphia officer driving a city police vehicle Tuesday died later that
day, police said.
The officer hit the woman near Ninth and South Streets shortly after 9 a.m.
Tuesday, police said. The officer was driving east on South Street and hit
the pedestrian when making a left turn onto South Ninth Street, police said.
The woman, who was later identified as Suzanne M. Shepherd, 69, suffered
multiple injuries and was taken to Thomas Jefferson University Hospital. She
was pronounced dead just before 5:30 p.m. Tuesday.
Michele Margolis, a political science professor at the University of
Pennsylvania, was walking near Ninth and South Streets on Tuesday morning
when she saw a person on the ground, a foot or two from the crosswalk. She
saw a black van with what appeared to be rear flashing police lights stopped
next to the person. Margolis said there were no police markings visible on
the left side of the vehicle.
Police would not say if the vehicle that hit Shepherd was marked or unmarked
, or if the officer flashed the vehicle’s lights or turned on its sirens
ahead of the hit.
Two people exited the van, one wearing a vest marked Bomb Squad and the
other one wearing a vest marked Counterterrorism, said Margolis. The two
people then attended to the person on the ground.
Police did not release the name of the officer who was driving the vehicle,
saying that the department does not identify drivers of a striking vehicle
unless they flee the scene or are arrested. The officer, who was on duty at
the time, was placed on 30 days of non-driving status, police said.
David Rucki was devastated to find out he had lost his friend Shepherd, a
retired ER doctor and professor of emergency medicine at the University of
Pennsylvania who was an artist, a gardener, and a foodie who truly loved
Philadelphia.
Rucki learned about Shepherd’s death Wednesday morning.
She was “such an interesting person,” Rucki said Thursday. “Such a life
well-lived.”
Rucki and Shepherd would text weekly, with Shepherd giving Rucki
recommendations on the best restaurants in the city and gardening tips.
After recently retiring, Shepherd had been drawn to creative hobbies, said
Rucki, taking up watercolor painting and photography.
Shepherd loved Rucki’s wife and daughter, often giving feedback on his wife
’s own paintings and giving Rucki’s daughter plants for her to start her
garden.
The sudden loss of someone who had become like family was crushing, said
Rucki.
“She was just such an interesting woman. Such a wonderful, interesting,
vibrant. It’s so tragic,” said Rucki. “I miss her. I just wish I could
talk to her again.”
Published July 1, 2022 |
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