A suspect accused of fatally shooting a Philadelphia police officer and severely wounding his partner admitted that race motivated the ambush, according to an arrest report and law enforcement sources. The suspect allegedly told investigators he opened fire because the officers were white.

Philadelphia Police Officer Shane Seiber was killed during the early morning hours of October 11 while responding to a report of an armed person. A second officer was wounded during the gunfire on the 100 block of North 52nd Street in West Philadelphia.

Authorities identified the suspect as 35-year-old Eric Lewis. Officers later apprehended him in a nearby tree following a standoff that lasted nearly an hour.

A neighbor called 911 at approximately 12:17 a.m. to report a person carrying a gun outside a home. Seiber and his 33-year-old partner arrived near 12:50 a.m.

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Seiber, 40, had served on the Philadelphia police force for 10 years after joining in 2016. He was also the father of two young children.

After Seiber knocked on the door, Lewis approached from across the street and asked why police were standing on the porch. He became aggressive when the officers asked whether he lived at the residence.

As the officers tried to determine whether Lewis was armed, he allegedly opened fire. Seiber was struck three times, while his partner was shot 12 times.

Lewis continued shooting while the officers were wounded on the porch, according to the account. He also yelled at them to get off the porch before retreating into an alley.

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More officers reached the scene shortly after 1 a.m. and discovered the two wounded officers. They transported both men for medical treatment, but Seiber was pronounced dead roughly three hours later.

The second officer, a father of five who had spent nine years on the job, remained hospitalized in stable condition. Lewis also fired at nine additional officers who responded near the alley, though none of those officers was struck.

After the standoff, SWAT officers found Lewis in a tree at a height of roughly two stories. Lewis asked police not to shoot, said he wanted the confrontation to end peacefully, and surrendered.

Police recovered a shotgun and two handguns. One of the weapons was a 9mm Glock service pistol belonging to the injured officer, and it was loaded with a magazine taken from Seiber’s belt.

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Lewis was treated for a head injury at Jefferson University Hospital, where he spoke with officers for nearly two hours. According to the arrest report, Lewis said he would not have shot the officers if they had been black and claimed he shot them because they were white.

Lewis also told a black female officer that the encounter would have amounted to a conversation if she had responded. He claimed the officers should not have entered his porch or placed their hands on him.

“I did what I did because they did what they did,” Lewis said, according to the report. He also claimed the officers automatically grabbed him because they were white.

The arrest report states that Lewis directed racist comments toward white officers. Those remarks included claims that he earned more money than they did and that white officers would not have grabbed him or pointed guns if he were white.

Lewis had worked as a trades helper for the Philadelphia Water Department since 2024. He now faces 76 charges stemming from the deadly encounter and the shots allegedly fired at responding officers.

The charges include homicide of a law enforcement officer and murder in Seiber’s death. Lewis also faces multiple counts of attempted homicide and attempted murder involving the wounded officer and the nine additional officers who came under fire.

Authorities further charged Lewis with disarming a law enforcement officer, firearms offenses, and related counts. The service weapon recovered after his arrest belonged to Seiber’s wounded partner.

Court records show Lewis had previous convictions dating back to 2012 for theft and receiving stolen property. He was convicted in 2015 in a case involving carrying a firearm in public and simple assault, followed by a 2018 disorderly conduct conviction involving fighting.

Lewis received probation for each of those prior convictions. He now stands accused of killing a veteran officer, gravely wounding another, firing on nine more officers, and explicitly telling investigators that the victims’ race drove his actions.

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