Personal Injury Law

Philly Officer Faces Injury Lawsuit for Alleged Drunken Shooting

By Michael

A Philadelphia police officer is the target of a personal injury lawsuit that claims he fired his weapon after an off-duty night of drinking.

According to the Philadelphia Daily News, the lawsuit is charging Officer Thomas Schaffling with firing his weapon wildly around 3 a.m. on March 26 after leaving the an after-hours club in the Tacony neighborhood of Philadelphia. Schaffling was apparently upset that he couldn?t find his car, and began muttering obscenities before drawing his weapon.

?He was just firing wildly? Attorney Paul Messing said. ?He seemed to be firing [bullets] all over the place and in their direction. It was just good fortune and Schaffling’s state of intoxication that no one was killed.?

Messing is the personal injury lawyer representing two men who claim they encountered Schaffling, 26, on the street after he left the bar, and that Schaffling threatened to kill them before he started shooting.

One of the men, 29-year-old Richard Checchia, was grazed under his arm by one of the stray bullets, according to the Daily News. Checchia was treated for the injury at Aria Health?s Frankfort campus and released.

The lawsuit, filed on behalf of Checchia and 28-year-old Stanley Dawlejko, names Schaffling, Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey and officers who responded to the scene all as defendants.

Schaffling, who has served on the police force for over seven years, has been the target of at least 14 different citizen complaints, many of which involving excessive force, according to the Daily News. He has also been a part of several high-profile police mishaps, including a videotaped beating of three people suspected in a shooting, an incident where officers used pepper spray and struck women and children at a baby shower and the accidental near-arrest of state Representative Jewell Williams.

In past incidents, people claimed that Schaffling brandished a weapon and threatened people with a violent death, according to the Daily News.

Messing said that the night of this recent situation with Schaffling he was yelling about not being able to find his car when Checchia and Dawlejko were about to get into Checchia?s vehicle.

Schaffling is accused of kicking in a fog light on Checchia?s vehicle and then threatening to kill the two men after he yelled that he was a cop. A witness has verified that he heard the threat, according to the Daily News.

Schaffling then allegedly attacked the two men before firing his gun. The suit further claims that officers who later arrived on the scene arrested Checchia and Dawlejko and held them for 18 hours, but didn?t charge them.

Schaffling, however, was not arrested or charged.

Full post as published by The Injury Blog on April 19, 2010 (boomark / email).