Police, SWAT officers and U.S. marshals swarmed onto a sliver of Potter Street in Kensington yesterday morning, near the rattling El, to arrest one of two men suspected of shooting at two police officers, injuring one, in a gunbattle last week.
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Cuenas is believed to have been one of three men in a white van stopped by Officer Kevin Livewell and his partner in Kensington about 8:30 p.m. Thursday on Water Street near Indiana Avenue, about a mile away from where he was arrested.
The 24th District officers had stopped the van because of a report of "men with guns," police have said.
After the van stopped, the two passengers immediately fired on the officers, then fled, police said. One passenger is believed to have been Cuenas. Police said the other shooter is still on the lam.
As the two shooters ran away, they discarded an AK-47 rifle, an SKS rifle and a Glock 9 mm pistol, police said. Those weapons have been recovered, as have two other rifles and three other handguns found in the van.
Livewell, 30, was hit in the right leg during the shoot-out. He is still at Temple University Hospital and is expected to be released within the next few days.
The van driver was arrested at the scene by Livewell's partner - identified by a police source as Officer Brian Issel.
Yesterday, police identified the driver as Ramon DeJesus, 36. He was charged with two counts of attempted murder, aggravated assault and assault on a police officer, and with a count of conspiracy.
Blackburn said Cuenas would face the same charges.
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DeJesus was twice arrested earlier this year in separate drug cases and faces trial in those cases, according to court records.
Cuenas is awaiting trial in two drug-possession cases from 2007. He has previously pleaded guilty to drug-related charges from 2001 and '02 arrests and has spent time in prison, court records show.
http://www.philly.com/dailynews/local/20100720_Man_suspected_of_shooting_Philly_cop_nabbed.html
His guy shouldn't have had a chance.
That's all Lt. Vincent Testa, head of the Philadelphia Police Department's firearms investigation unit, could muster as he surveyed the "military-style" weapons recovered last week on the 3000 block of North Water Street in Kensington - where Officer Kevin Livewell escaped with only a leg wound after exchanging gunfire with driver Ramon De Jesus and at least one of two heavily armed passengers in his white van.
"They were outgunned," Testa said. "I couldn't believe we didn't have several dead officers."
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But the incident, Testa acknowledged, also begs a sobering question: How can police possibly contend with this sort of firepower?
Cuenas and another man dropped two assault rifles, an AK-47 and SKS carbine, and a Glock pistol before fleeing Thursday night. Inside the van, police recovered two Bushmaster AR-15 assault-type rifles, a Taurus PT24 pistol, a TEC-9 semiautomatic pistol, and another Glock. Blackburn said the arsenal was unlike anything he'd seen in his nearly 30 years on the job.
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Police are working to establish how De Jesus and Cuenas acquired their weapons. Both men, according to Blackburn, "are known to police" for past offenses.
A search of court records for De Jesus and Cuenas showed that Cuenas has several drug convictions. He pleaded guilty to drug dealing and criminal conspiracy, and was sentenced in 2002 to 231/2 months in prison. He also pleaded guilty to drug dealing and was sentenced in 2003 to six to 12 months in prison. He was charged with several violent crimes as an adult, including attempted murder, but those cases were either withdrawn or dismissed.
http://www.philly.com/inquirer/loca...lice__outgunned__in_last_week_s_shooting.html
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