KILLADELPHIA: Bank Robber Dead, Cop Slain

INQUIRER: A Philadelphia police officer was shot and killed with a military assault rifle late this morning when he confronted at least two robbers who had just held up a Bank of America branch at a Shoprite supermarket in Port Richmond. At 11:26 a.m., police received a report of a robbery at the American Bank at 3547 Aramingo Avenue. Another officer, responding to a “flash” that had been broadcast on police radio, ran into the robbers at Schiller and Almond streets and shot one of them dead, officials said. One, perhaps two, of the robbers remained at large late this afternoon as hundreds of police officers searched a wide swath of the city looking for bandits and their getaway car. “This is a tragedy for the entire City of Philadelphia,” Mayor Nutter told a reporter outside of Temple University Hospital, where the slain officer was taken. Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey identified the slain officer as Stephen Liczbinski, 40, a 12-year police veteran assigned to the 24th District in Port Richmond who recently had been promoted to sergeant. Liczbinski’s wife, Michelle, and their three children — Matt, Steven and Amber — were escorted into the hospital by police officials. MORE