Authorities say the 75-year-old man was armed when officers confronted him on a West Philadelphia porch Tuesday morning.
PHILADELPHIA — Residents on a normally quiet block of West Philadelphia were left shaken Tuesday after a longtime neighbor was fatally shot by police during a fast-moving confrontation outside a home on Webster Street, authorities and witnesses said.
Police said the encounter began just after 7 a.m., when two officers responded to a report of a person with a weapon on the 5400 block of Webster Street. Deputy Commissioner Frank Vanore said officers found a 75-year-old man on the porch of an occupied house with a handgun. One officer approached, and the scene turned violent within seconds. Investigators believe the man fired once and the female officer fired once. The man was rushed to Penn Presbyterian Medical Center and pronounced dead at 7:33 a.m. No one else was injured.
For neighbors, the official description of a brief confrontation clashed with the image they carried of the man they knew. The Philadelphia Inquirer reported he was identified by neighbors and a police source as Anthony McKinley, a resident who had lived on the block for decades. Several people said he was a dependable presence who spent time on his porch, helped others with repairs, and offered advice to younger neighbors. Some said they woke to the sound of two quick shots and came outside to find police tape, patrol cars and investigators taking over the street.
Crystal Harris, who has lived nearby for more than three decades, said McKinley was already on the block when she arrived years ago. She remembered him as the kind of person who would help without being asked and refuse payment. Pete Hutton, standing on his porch a few doors away, said he had known McKinley in passing and could not understand how the morning had ended in gunfire. Shihee Hatchett said McKinley had played an informal mentor’s role for many neighborhood children, teaching basketball at a nearby playground and sharing practical trade skills that lasted into adulthood.
The neighborhood setting sharpened the sense of disbelief. Webster Street sits in the Cobbs Creek area, a residential part of West Philadelphia where rowhouses line the block and residents often know one another by name. By late morning, crews in protective suits were cleaning blood from the front steps and siding of the house, according to the Inquirer’s account from the scene. Police tape remained in place even after some crime scene units began to leave, and passersby stopped to watch as investigators searched for evidence and talked with witnesses.
Police have released only a limited account so far. Vanore said officers recovered a gun and that body cameras were on during the incident. He also said investigators still needed to review the footage and compare it with witness statements and other evidence before reaching firm conclusions. Officials had not publicly said who fired first, what words were exchanged, or how close the officer was to McKinley when the shots were fired. Those unanswered questions are central to the investigation and to how the shooting will be judged by the public.
The officer who fired has been placed on administrative duty while the case is investigated, according to NBC10. That step is routine after police shootings, but the broader review can take time as detectives, internal investigators and prosecutors examine video, ballistics and interviews. In the meantime, neighbors are left with a sharper and more immediate loss: the sudden death of a man many of them knew not as a suspect or a headline, but as “Tony,” the person they saw on the block for years.
By Tuesday afternoon, the official investigation was still in its early stages, while the neighborhood response was already clear. Residents were grieving, police were reviewing evidence, and the next key turn in the case is expected to come when investigators release more detail about what happened in the seconds before the shooting.
Author note: Last updated April 7, 2026.