Police officer dies of apparent heart attack during protests
By Thomas Gibbons
Inquirer Staff Writer
A 17-year veteran Philadelphia police officer was fatally stricken today while assigned to monitor a protest in Center City.
Officer Paris Williams, 52, was pronounced dead at 1:12 p.m. at Hahnemann University Hospital of apparent cardiac arrest, authorities said. Williams, who was assigned to the department's civil affairs unit, was at the scene of a demonstration in the 1200 block of Arch Street when he was stricken about 12:45 p.m. Civil Affairs officers and commanders routinely are assigned to demonstrations.
"There was a demonstration. During the course of the demonstration by the protesters, a scuffle broke out," said Police Commissioner Sylvester M. Johnson.
"I don't think Officer Paris Williams was involved in the scuffle, but anyhow, he saw the scuffle, he went toward the scuffle, he collapsed," Johnson said outside the hospital.
Other officers saw Williams go down, and called for help, Johnson said. Fire Department paramedics rushed him to nearby Hahnemann.
"He died in the performance of his duties," Johnson said. "We're not blaming anybody for what happened. Right now, the whole circumstances are being investigated. At this point, unfortunately, we have an officer that died today in the line of duty."
Doctors told Johnson that when Williams arrived, his heart was not beating. "They spent a lot of time trying to revive him," he said.
Joining Johnson at the hospital was Mayor Street and other city officials. Williams' two children also were at the hospital.
― maria tessa sciarrino (theoreticalgirl), Wednesday, 22 June 2005 02:19 (twenty years ago)
also:
Arrests made as conference protests pick up steam
Inquirer Staff Report
About a half dozen demonstrators were arrested by Philadelphia police today as a march by a few hundred protestors reached the front of the Pennsylvania Convention Center where the BIO 2005 bio-technology convention is in its last day.
The marchers, far smaller in numbers than the protestors during the 2000 Republican National Convention here, carried signs bearing peace signs and protesting genetic engineering of tomatoes.
Police and protestors met on Arch Street between 12th and 13th when a line of officers blocked the marchers, who had just arrived in front of the convention center. About 18,000 people are in Philadelphia for the event, and a few dozen were watching the arrests from convention center windows.
As demonstrators encountered the police line in front of the convention center, marchers bunched up and a brief pushing and shoving match between police and protestors knocked one plainclothes officer to the ground, who was later apparently taken away in an ambulance.
The protests began rather uneventfully this morning as about 60 demonstrators gathered in the shadow of the GlaxoSmithKline building at 16th and Race streets.
There as part of day-long protest of BIO 2005, a biotechnology conference at the Convention Center, the demonstrators seemed to content to fill the sidewalk as they collected outside drug company headquarters.
The crowd of mostly young people in their 20s and 30s was matched by a watchful crew of uniformed and plainclothes police officers.
With the uniform of the day — blue jeans, dark t-shirts and dreadlocks — the demonstrators listened to one of their members play guitar while many ate bagels and bowls of fruit. They began gathering at 9 a.m.
By 11 a.m. and numbering about 85, the protesters gathered in front of Hahnemann University Hospital. Later, they intended to march to the convention center at 12th and Race streets.
Also at 11, another group of about 70 protesters began walking toward JFK Plaza, at 15th Street and John F. Kennedy Boulevard, for a demonstration against bio-weaponry. Most wore red and black t-shirts and held large cardboard signs in the shape of a skull.
Around noon, about 200 to 300 hundred skateboarders made their way from South Street to Love Park where they skated briefly until told to stop by some rather tolerant police officers.
Among the group was Eric Widder, a 17-year-old high school junior from Catonsville, Md. who had driven up from the Baltimore area with three friends.
"I'm going to skateboard until they take my board away," he said.
He noted it was his first time to Philadelphia and Love Park, which he had seen only in skateboard videos.
"The surface is so smooth," he said. "There are so many ledges. It looks like it was made for skateboarding. I've never seen anything like this."
After leaving the park, the group made its way to the convention center.
― maria tessa sciarrino (theoreticalgirl), Wednesday, 22 June 2005 02:20 (twenty years ago)