PHILADELPHIA - Police on Wednesday were videotaped kicking and beating a suspect who had been involved in a shootout with police minutes earlier.
Mayor John F. Street promised ''a proper and fair investigation.''
''While it would be easy to be inflamed by the videotape, we have to determine all the facts,'' Street said late Wednesday night.
Street said that ''as inflammatory as this tape might be,'' police had been trying to apprehend the man, who had resistsed arrest and had shot an officer.
The man, Thomas Jones, 30, is accused of leading police on a chase in a stolen patrol car after firing at them and injuring one with an officer's gun. He was dragged from the police car and kicked and beaten by police for about 30 seconds while a television news helicopter hovered overhead.
Jones, who appeared to resist officers as he was led away in a chokehold and handcuffs, was in serious condition with injuries to his abdomen and arms, said hospital spokeswoman Vivica Aycox.
Witnesses said he and police traded numerous gunshots before he leaped into one of their cruisers and fled. Police said the man was shot by officers two or three times.
Police Commissioner John Timoney said questions about police brutality were premature.
''The guy obviously doesn't want to get arrested,'' Timoney said. ''When somebody doesn't want to get arrested, there really isn't a very easy way of doing it. So let's not jump to any conclusions; let's wait and see what happens.''
The incident began when officers saw a car driving erratically and determined it was reported stolen July 1, Timoney said. Two officers stopped the car and there was a confrontation with the suspect outside of the cars.
Bertha Jones, 40, was sitting on her porch when she saw police and the suspect exchange gunfire. The suspect led police on a foot chase around a building across the street and then jumped an iron gate with his hands in the air, as if to surrender, she said.
''The cops ran over and start beating on him,'' she said. ''They was beating on the man. He got one of their guns, started shooting, and by then I ran in the house.''
''He fired his shots off. They fired,'' she said.
An officer was shot in the thumb and was in stable condition. Another officer was treated for a bite wound inflicted by the suspect, police said.
The suspect jumped into the police car and fled before the car was stopped by other officers. The suspect was dragged from the cruiser.
Video from a WPVI-TV helicopter showed a dozen men, some in uniform and some in civilian clothes, surrounding the suspect on the ground, beating and kicking him for about 30 seconds. He was then led away.
