Then he heard the shotgun blast.
That blast, a prosecutor said yesterday, came from Solomon Montgomery, 23, who was armed with a sawed-off shotgun and a black pistol, and it struck Skerski, 46, in the throat. Montgomery, the prosecutor said, was robbing the bar and its patrons when he was confronted by Skerski at the side entrance shortly after 10 p.m. May 8.
The testimony was presented on the first day of Montgomery's preliminary hearing before Municipal Court Judge William King. Montgomery faces the death penalty if convicted.
Courtroom 304 at the Criminal Justice Center was filled to near-capacity with Skerski's family, friends and fellow officers, and people who appeared to quietly show support for Montgomery.
The hearing was the first time Alexander and other officers directly involved that night spoke publicly about the events surrounding Skerski's slaying.
After allegedly shooting Skerski, Montgomery, of North Philadelphia, then began firing at Alexander, who said that he ran for cover behind the police SUV and then a nearby truck.
"Shots fired! Shots fired!" Alexander shouted into his radio, Officer Richard Lorenz testified.
Then Lorenz said he heard Skerski's voice, low and raspy, on the radio: "I'm shot. I'm shot." They were his last words.
By the time other officers came to aid Skerski, he was lying on his right side outside the bar's side door, a "river of blood" flowing from him, as one patron testified. "He had a blank stare in his eyes," Lorenz said.
A group of officers frantically carried him to the police SUV, but they couldn't open the back door, Lorenz said. Instead, they loaded their fallen colleague into a patrol car and Lorenz drove him to Temple University Hospital, where Skerski, a married father of two and a 16-year veteran of the force, was later pronounced dead.
