Off-Duty Cop Shot At CVS By Meth Addict; Krasner On Scene

By Ralph Cipriano
for BigTrial.net

A man reported by his wife to be heavily armed and suicidal shot an off-duty police officer shortly after 6:30 this morning at a CVS in South Philly.

The assailant, identified by police as Richard Anthony Kralle, was reported missing by his wife Thursday night, after telling her "He has nothing to live for and is going to end his life."

According to a police report, Kralle had been on meth for the past four months and was said to be armed with two revolvers and a AR-15 style rifle. The police had been looking of him all night. This morning, after his overnight shift ended, Lt. Robert Friel witnessed another officer confronting Kralle at the CVS at 10th and Reed, so Friel went over to assist the other officer.

During a struggle, Kralle shot Lt. Friel in the upper left leg. Kralle was taken into custody and Friel was reported in stable condition before he had surgery at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital. On Fox 29, D.A. Larry Krasner was seen lurking outside the CVS. The FOP, however, had already staked out the hospital, and officers were planning to block Krasner again should he attempt to visit another wounded officer.

This morning's shooting came at the end of another violent day in Philadelphia, where 20 shootings were reported on Thursday.

At a press conference this morning, Mayor Jim Kenney said "the shootings were all over the city," not only in pinpoint locations known by police to be high-crime areas, but in many other locations as well.

While he was on camera, the mayor gave an anti-gun rap that went like this: "There's too many guns in our society. I don't understand it."

Kenney went on to discuss banning guns and eliminating poverty before he returned back to earth, and the 20 shootings that happened yesterday, in a county where citizens still have the constitutional right to bear arms.

About the most recent outbreak of gun violence, Kenney said, "I don't have an answer," and, "We're gonna keep working at it."

Police Commissioner Outlaw was more informative, saying at the press conference that Friel, 48, was a 28-year veteran of the police force who was married, with three kids. He comes from a police family, the police commissioner said. His brother, Joseph Friel, another Philadelphia cop, only 25, was killed while on duty in 1994 by a drunken driver.

At the press conference, deputy police Commissioner Christine Coulter said she got a chance to talk to Lt. Friel before he went into surgery.

"He's in very high spirits," she said. "He was concerned about his family . . . Obviously we're all praying for him."