Authorities: Suspect Shot Dead Had Been Fighting With Girlfriend

The 29-year-old Philadelphia man who was killed by police in Philadelphia after allegedly shooting a man in the face in Middletown Township had been fighting with his girlfriend prior to the attack, authorities said.

Terrance Andre Bey, 29, of Philadelphia, was shot in the head by a Philadelphia Police Department 15th District officer Wednesday afternoon in the area of Whitaker and Adams avenues in the city. The officer shot Bey after the suspect shot at officers and fled on foot, police said.

In a statement released Friday, the Bucks County District Attorney’s Office divulged more information on the wild afternoon.

Middletown Township officers were dispatched to the Racquet Club Apartments on Veterans Highway (Route 413) at 2:41 p.m. for a report that a 28-year-old female resident was involved in a domestic assault with Bey. The caller said Bey grabbed his girlfriend by the throat and choked her. There was also word Bey might have been armed, authorities said.

The district attorney’s office released the following timeline:

The caller said Bey grabbed his girlfriend by the throat and choked her. The caller also said Bey might be armed.

Middletown Township police officers arrived at 2:42 p.m. Two minutes later, a patrol officer spotted Bey near the B Building of the apartment complex and ordered him to stop and show his hands.

Bey briefly stopped, then turned his body away from the officer, reached into his waistband and refused to comply. Bey fled and the patrol officer pursued him on foot.  

During the foot pursuit, Bey rounded a corner of the B Building and took an armed offensive position near a patio. The patrol officer slowed his pursuit and peaked around the corner of the building, spotting Bey in the threatening position. The officer again issued verbal commands.

Bey instead fled on foot and ran toward an apartment in the B Building. The patrol officer cautiously followed Bey’s suspected path and then heard a glass break and a gunshot.

At 2:47 p.m., Middletown Township police officers converged on the apartment to get Bey, but instead found a shattered glass sliding door and a gunshot victim.

A woman inside the apartment told police she was inside with her common-law husband and Bey’s girlfriend. She said her husband was standing next to the kitchen counter in the dining room area and she was standing behind the kitchen counter. Bey’s girlfriend was in their bedroom.

She told police Bey smashed the rear sliding glass door, stepped into their apartment, and shot her husband in the face. Bey then fled on foot.

“He shot me, please help,” the shooting victim reportedly said.

Middletown Township police Chief Joseph Bartorilla said the man who was shot was a “good Samaritan.”

An officer rendered aid to the man who was shot in the face and spotted Bey fleeing the scene in a Volvo SUV, authorities said.

Medics arrived and transported the man with the facial gunshot wound to St. Mary Medical Center, where he underwent surgery. He is expected to survive, authorities said.

Multiple police units from several Lower Bucks County towns chased Bey’s vehicle as it went down Veterans Highway, looped around, and drove onto I-95 southbound. Philadelphia officers and Pennsylvania State Police joined the chase as it went onto busy Roosevelt Boulevard, authorities said.

The chase came to a crashing halt at the intersection of Roosevelt Boulevard and Whitaker and Adams avenues when a Middletown Township officer used a PIT maneuver to force the Volvo to spin and stop, city police said.

A Lower Makefield Township police SUV came head-to-head with Bey’s crashed Volvo, police said.

At that point, the Lower Makefield Township police sergeant in the vehicle saw Bey point what appeared to be a handgun at him, the sergeant rammed his SUV into Bey’s Volvo and took cover under his dashboard as shots rang out, police said.

In a statement, police in the city said a Lower Makefield Township officer fired at least one round at Bey before the suspect took off on foot. After firing shots, Bey was struck and killed by a shot from 15th District officer, police said.

The city shooting between Bey and police is under investigation as of Friday. The city’s Officer-Involved Shootings Investigations Unit was looking into the incident and the findings will be handed over to the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office.

Bucks County authorities said a search warrant executed at Bey’s girlfriend’s Middletown Township apartment Tuesday night led to the discovery of heroin, crack cocaine, methamphetamine, and packaging materials.

According to court records, Bey had a criminal history in Philadelphia, and authorities said he was wanted on warrants for probation violations and arrest warrants for drug and firearm charges.

District Attorney Matt Weintraub said the incident showed the “tremendous risks that police take to keep us safe and protect us every day.” He said he is praying for Bey’s victim who was shot and the officers who “risked their lives in trying to apprehend this would-be killer.”

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