Man arrested after deliberately driving into police building in Northeast Philly, commissioner says, hurting 5

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Several people were injured on Tuesday after a man deliberately drove through the Philadelphia 2nd District police building, according to police.

The crash happened around 1:40 p.m. in the 7300 block of Castor Avenue in the city’s Rhawnhurst neighborhood.

“It is clearly an absolute deliberate act,” Police Commissioner Kevin Bethel said in a news conference outside the damaged district building.

Bethel said officers responded to a domestic disturbance earlier that day at around 11:45 a.m. involving the suspect and his father.

“Based on what we’ve received so far, there’s nothing that would indicate that the individual would be mad at police,” Bethel said. “I don’t know what could have caused that other than somebody who’s in a different state of mind.”

The suspect was taken into custody at the scene. Police did not recover any weapons from his vehicle.

“We are working with our terrorism task force; we have been on the phone with our special agent in charge of the FBI,” Bethel said. “We’re looking at all the angles and we will make those determinations if it gets to the threshold where it’s considered a terrorist act.”

Five people were inside the lobby when the crash occurred. None of them suffered serious injuries. Bethel said all of the victims were transported to a hospital to be treated.

“We are very, very fortunate today that those individuals were not seriously injured,” Bethel said.

The investigation into the crash is currently ongoing.