A Philadelphia police officer shot a driver during a traffic stop at Lindbergh Boulevard and Eastwick Avenue in Southwest Philadelphia at about 7:28 a.m. on Thursday, November 12, after the driver, according to police, fought with two officers and then grabbed a loaded firearm from his car. The man, who has not been identified, was taken to Penn Presbyterian Medical Center and was undergoing surgery, police said.

Source: NBC10 Philadelphia

Deputy Commissioner Frank Vanore gave the department's first public account at the scene. Vanore said two officers stopped the driver of a white Chevy Malibu, the driver became combative and the stop escalated into a physical altercation between the driver and the two officers.

At some point during that struggle, police said, the man returned to his car and grabbed a firearm that officers later learned had a loaded extended magazine. One of the officers then fired and struck the man. That account — including the claim that the man brandished the gun — is the police department's account, relayed by Vanore, and has not yet been tested in any court or independent review.

"We can see in the very limited video that I've seen already that he had that gun in his hand, brandishing that weapon, and one of the officers did fire his weapon," Vanore said, according to NBC10 Philadelphia. Vanore said both officers were wearing activated body cameras and that dashcam footage also captured the struggle.

What dispatch audio and aerial video add

Police dispatch audio from the 12th District, published by CrimeRadar, recorded calls of "shots fired" at Lindbergh and Eastwick, an assist-officer request, and reports that one male had been shot, was still breathing, and was being transported by police to Presbyterian hospital. The dispatch traffic also described a white sedan and said a Taser had been used during the encounter, and confirmed no injuries to police.

Source: CrimeRadar dispatch report

Television aerial footage showed evidence markers placed on the ground outside the driver's-side door of a white sedan that remained at the intersection while investigators worked, according to Focal News' account of the scene. Police have not released the driver's name, age or condition beyond saying he was in surgery, and have not announced any charges.

The location: Eastwick, by the airport and the refuge

Lindbergh Boulevard and Eastwick Avenue sit in the Eastwick section of Southwest Philadelphia, a residential area near the John Heinz National Wildlife Refuge and Philadelphia International Airport. Lindbergh is a major thoroughfare for commuters and airport traffic, and the intersection was held as a crime scene during the morning investigation, with a heavy police presence visible from the air.

How Philadelphia investigates a police shooting

Officer-involved shootings in Philadelphia are reviewed under the department's internal investigation process, and the officer who fired is not publicly named at this early stage. Investigators will work from the body-worn camera and dashcam recordings Vanore cited, the recovered firearm police say had a loaded extended magazine, dispatch audio and witness accounts. The department has not said when any video will be released to the public.

Source: Focal News Philadelphia

What is not yet known

Police have not publicly stated the reason for the original traffic stop, the full sequence between the stop, the reported Taser use and the shot, or how many rounds the officer fired. Early local accounts differed in emphasis: NBC10 reported the detailed Vanore account of a gun being brandished, while Focal News noted that in the first hours police had not confirmed many basic details to reporters. The driver's account has not been made public, and no independent witness account was included in the first reports.

The shooting comes amid continuing local and national scrutiny of police use of force in encounters that begin as routine stops. Community advocates in Philadelphia have long called for timely release of body-worn camera footage and a clear public timeline whenever an officer fires a weapon — requests that will now attach to this case as the investigation proceeds.

What happens next

The next steps are updates on the driver's condition after surgery, the internal investigation of the shooting, and any decision on charges arising from the stop and the firearm police say was recovered. Police asked anyone with information about the incident to contact the department's tip line. Awaaz Punjab will update this story as the department releases the driver's identity, his condition and the investigators' findings.