Charges announced for hammer-wielding man shot by police during domestic incident in Mount Airy

PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — The hammer-wielding man who was shot by police officers after allegedly breaking into a woman’s Mount Airy apartment and threatening people with a hammer is now facing charges.

Around 1 a.m. on April 20, officials said 23-year-old Maurice Samuels got into an argument with a 23-year-old woman in her apartment on East Cliveden Street, and he was asked to leave. However, police said he broke in through a window, grabbed the woman, and took her into a bedroom.

Another man, who was the subject of the dispute, arrived and tried to intervene. Police said he knocked on the front door and demanded that Samuels come out.

Police received a call about a man with a gun at the apartment and rushed to the scene. When the pair of cops arrived, they saw the intervening man pounding on the door and saying something about the suspect threatening him with a hammer.

When Samuels finally came out of the apartment, the two officers — Officer Shana Moore and Lt. Todd Landherr — said they saw something in his hand. Believing it was a gun, they fired at him. Samuels was shot in the hand and grazed in the arm. He ran back inside and a barricade perimeter was set up, but he was eventually taken into custody and to the hospital.

A hammer was recovered from the scene.

Samuels is now charged with terroristic threats, burglary, criminal trespassing, weapons charges, and other related offenses.

The two officers have been placed on desk duty pending the outcome of the investigation, which is standard protocol for officer-involved shootings. Police said both officers had body-worn cameras that were actively recording during the incident.

Landherr is a 16-year veteran of the police department, and Moore has been on the force for eight years.