Philadelphia’s top prosecutor said he offered the suspected gunman in a police shooting a “phony baloney” deal to get him to surrender during an hourslong standoff.
District Attorney Larry Krasner told the Philadelphia Inquirer he spoke with suspect Maurice Hill in an effort to get him to surrender after six police officers had been shot and two more were trapped inside a house Wednesday. The suspect wanted to know how many years in prison he might face.
“Early on, I said 25 [years], then he said 20 and I said OK,” Krasner said.
Hill, 36, insisted that the deal be in writing, and Krasner said he wrote a draft but did not finish it.
“We need to be clear here: This was bullshit from the beginning,” Krasner said.
Some argued Krasner’s actions could be problematic as the case proceeds, especially if he’s called as a witness.
“We find that when we overpromise or deceive the person, it tends to backfire on us,” said Gary Noesner, retired chief of the FBI’s Crisis Negotiation Unit. “If you promise them what you can’t deliver, it can sound phony [or] like you’re just trying to tell them whatever they want to hear. What ultimately convinces people to surrender is that they feel you’re being honest and upfront with them.”
Hill’s attorney, Shaka M. Johnson, was also involved in the call and defended Krasner’s tactics.
“When [Hill] started talking about things that those of us in the business knew could not happen, [Krasner] did not thwart the negotiations by shutting him down immediately, nor did he promise him anything that ultimately couldn’t get done,” Johnson said. “But he did allow that man, in his mind, to keep things in play so that he could come out of there.”
Hill was charged Saturday with multiple counts of attempted murder, aggravated assault, simple assault, and weapons offenses.
“These are more than enough charges so that Mr. Maurice Hill may never exit jail,” Krasner said Saturday.
