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4-MAY-2008: This undated photo released by Philadelphia Mayor's
office shows police officer Steven Liczbinski. Veteran police
officer, Steven Liczbinski, 40, was shot and killed with an assault
weapon after a bank robbery in the Port Richmond section of
Philadelphia on Saturday May 3, 2008, authorities said. Liczbinski, a
12-year veteran who had recently been promoted to sergeant, was
responding to the robbery of a bank inside a grocery store around
11:30 a.m., authorities said. The suspects fled, and opened fire
after Liczbinski confronted them a short distance away. (AP
Photo/Philadelphia Mayor's Office) [Photo copyright 2008 by AP]
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PHILADELPHIA - One suspect was charged and a second was being sought Sunday in the killing of a police officer who was shot with an assault rifle while investigating a report of bank robbery, police said.LAST MINUTE TRAVEL DEALS Levon Warner, 38, was charged with murder, robbery, conspiracy and related offenses, Deputy Commissioner William Blackburn said at a news conference Sunday. A second man, Eric Floyd, 33, believed to have escaped from a halfway house in Berks County, was being sought on a homicide charge. A third man, Howard Cain, 33, was killed by police. The dead officer, Sgt. Steven Liczbinski, a 12-year veteran who would have turned 40 on Tuesday, was responding to a report of a robbery of a bank inside a grocery store around 11:30 a.m. Saturday. The robbers fled, and opened fire after Liczbinski confronted them a short distance away, authorities said. Cain was shot as police pursued the gunmen, authorities said. About a dozen blue-shirted officers, some wearing white motorcycle helmets, flanked a black hearse and saluted as the body of Liczbinski, a married father of three, was placed in the hearse at the hospital Saturday. The hearse was escorted away by officers on police motorcycles, some bearing black- and blue-striped flags. Mayor Michael Nutter on Saturday declared a 30-day period of mourning for Liczbinski and requested that all flags in the city be lowered to half-staff for that period. Liczbinski's killing comes only a few days after Police Commissioner Charles H. Ramsey announced a major reorganization of the police department's command structure and the addition of nearly 250 officers on street patrols as part of a strategy to reduce crime. The shooting came about six months after the last death of a Philadelphia officer in the line of duty. Officer Chuck Cassidy, 54, also a father of three, was killed during the botched robbery of a doughnut shop on Oct. 31. Nearly two years ago, in May 2006, Officer Gary Skerski was fatally shot in the neck when a man robbing a bar fired a shotgun out the back door.
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4-MAY-2008: This undated photo released by Philadelphia Mayor's
office shows police officer Steven Liczbinski. Veteran police
officer, Steven Liczbinski, 40, was shot and killed with an assault
weapon after a bank robbery in the Port Richmond section of
Philadelphia on Saturday May 3, 2008, authorities said. Liczbinski, a
12-year veteran who had recently been promoted to sergeant, was
responding to the robbery of a bank inside a grocery store around
11:30 a.m., authorities said. The suspects fled, and opened fire
after Liczbinski confronted them a short distance away. (AP
Photo/Philadelphia Mayor's Office) [Photo copyright 2008 by AP]
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