As the city and its Police Department reeled from the killing of the fourth officer in less than a year, Mayor Nutter vowed investigators would leave no stone unturned in a hunt for anyone who may have harbored Giddings, who wounded another officer, Richard Bowes, 36, before Bowes shot and killed him.
Yesterday, police questioned and released the woman who drove the car that McDonald pulled over minutes before he was gunned down by Giddings, a passenger. Police said that she had cooperated with investigators and that they did not expect to file charges against her.
With Nutter at his side at a news conference, Police Commissioner Charles H. Ramsey called the rash of assaults on police unprecedented.
"I've never seen, in such a short period of time, this many officers who died violently, assassinated, on the streets of any city," said Ramsey, whose career stretches over more than four decades. "These are assassinations. "
Said Nutter, his voice rising: "If you help a criminal, you are a criminal, and we're coming after you, too. " He said authorities would aggressively prosecute those who "harbor, aid, abet, provide assistance, or frustrate us in our efforts to track down a wanted fugitive. "
Police said they expected to bring charges against a South Carolina man who purchased the murder weapon and several other guns in what appeared to be a straw purchase. One of those guns was used during an earlier robbery in Philadelphia, police said.
Homicide detectives questioned the driver of the car in which Giddings was riding. They identified her as Chanel Howard, 27, of West Philadelphia, whom McDonald had pulled over in the 2200 block of North 17th Street for a routine traffic stop because her 1995 Buick had a broken taillight.
