Highway Patrol Officer Patrick McDonald shot to death; 2nd cop wounded; gunman slain

Patrick McDonald shot to death; 2nd cop wounded; gunman slain
Philadelphia Daily News

This story was reported by staff writers Stephanie Farr, David Gambacorta, Dafney Tales, Damon Williams and Christine Olley, and written by staff writer Will Bunch.

IT ALL STARTED with a routine traffic stop on a sunny fall afternoon, in a gritty swath of North Philadelphia.

But Highway Patrol Officer Patrick McDonald apparently didn't know the passenger in the red 1995 Buick that he had pulled over at 17th and Dauphin streets was a violent felon and a wanted man. What took place over the next few minutes was anything but routine.

When it was all over, McDonald - a popular eight-year veteran of the force - lay dying a couple of blocks away, a second motorcycle officer who happened on the suspect was wounded by gunfire, and the alleged cop-killer, Daniel Giddings, 27, had been shot to death by police.

McDonald - 30, single, former star athlete at Archbishop Ryan - was rushed to Temple University Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 2:08 p.m., 23 minutes after he had radioed for backup.

Giddings, the man that police identified as his killer, was a convicted carjacker wanted in connection with a scuffle that injured two Highway Patrol cops last month.

The news of McDonald's death was a crushing blow to a city and a police force now reeling from an epidemic of murders of police officers over the last two years, with four deaths in the last 11 months alone.
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