Listen Live
Majic 102.3/92.7 Featured Video
CLOSE

 

For eight hours on Wednesday, Philly, as well as the nation, sat by their TV’s as they waited to see if the man who shot 6 police officers would be taken into custody alive. Surprisingly he was all because of one man, attorney Shaka Johnson.

 

Shaka Johnson

Source: Sarah O’Connor / Radio One

Follow the Quincy Harris Morning Show on Instagram @QHMShow

“I Made It My Point To Make Sure He Was Not Killed on TV in Front of His Kids”

The FIRST place Attorney Shaka Johnson visited, before Good Morning America and before The Today Show was the Quincy Harris Morning Show. Here are some highlights from the interview. The full video of the interview is below.

The shooting started around 4:30pm on Wednesday and at that time, Shaka had no idea that Maurice Hill was his client from a previous case. It was not until Maurice called him at 8:30pm did he know that he knew the North Philly Shooter.

 At 8:30p Maurice directly calls my phone. At that time I had no idea he was involved. When I picked up he said, yo Unc it’s me. Something in his energy I just knew.

What was Maurice’s tone when you were talking to him?

Wasn’t aggressive. He sounded poignant, he sounded very deliberate in what he was saying.

At one point there was a 4-way conversation. A hostage negotiator, Police Commissioner Ross, Larry Krasner, the District Attorney and myself. Everybody had a different agenda. He (Maurice) would not let the conversation move off of ‘I want to get out of this thing alive.’

He was concerned about his family; his teenage son, his three-day-old daughter.

Related: Suspect Surrenders After 6 Philadelphia Police Officers Shot in North Philadelphia

During the negotiation between Shaka and Maurice they talked about various things they even shared a laugh; not that anything about the situation was funny but Shaka was trying to engage him to soften him up about the notion of walking out alive.

At any point did Maurice say to you that he was about to end it (his life) and what did you say?

I had a couple different responses depending on when he said it to me. One time I told him I was turning my phone and tv off and I would find out in the morning what happened. I’m not sitting on the phone with you while the police kill you. Just remember this, you have a son out here. You are going to put into all of eternity you getting killed on nationwide TV.

How did getting served with a warrant turn into 6 police officers getting shot?

I don’t even know if he was the target of the warrant, I don’t know if he was just at the location where they were doing the search warrant and he was just there. I made sure not to address him on those things because even though we were on a cell you have to know the government is listening. I never engaged him in the back story. I made it my point to make sure he was not killed on TV in front of his kids.

Shaka Johnson, who was previously a SWAT team member, said “the energy at the crime scene was palpable; he was familiar with the energy. Commissioner Ross held back his SWAT team and Shaka commends him for that and for allowing him the opportunity to speak with Maurice at the crime scene when he eventually came out and not making him wait for days to eventually speak with his client.”

Watch the interview in it’s entirety in the video below, and make sure you like and subscribe to our new Quincy Harris Morning Show YouTube channel!

 

LIKE The Quincy Harris Morning Show on Facebook

 

Lawyer Shaka Johnson Details What Led To Suspects Surrender In Philly Standoff  was originally published on rnbphilly.com