PA PA- Philadelphia, BlkMale, 55-60, UP6293, 'Poppa Doc'/'Morgan Mumford', Shot by police, 3 July 2009

[sorcoy14]

The National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs)

PM WARNING

(Live Photo from 2006 Arrest) (Sketch Based on PM)

Case Numbers​

NCMEC Number--
ME/C Case Number09-2619

Demographics​

SexMale
Race / EthnicityBlack / African American
Possible First Name--
Possible Middle Name--
Possible Last Name--
Nickname/Alias--
Estimated Age GroupAdult - Pre 60
Estimated Age Range (Years)55-60
Estimated Year of Death2009
Estimated PMIMinutes
Height6' 0"(72 inches) , Measured
Weight195 lbs, Measured

Circumstances​

TypeUnidentified Deceased
Date Body FoundJuly 3, 2009
NamUs Case CreatedNovember 30, 2009
ME/C QA ReviewedDecember 1, 2009

Location Found Map​

LocationPhiladelphia, Pennsylvania 19102
CountyPhiladelphia County
GPS Coordinates (Not Mapped)--
Found On Tribal Land--
Circumstances of RecoveryHomeless man was shot and killed by police in a subway concourse after reportedly menacing passersby and police with a boxcutter.

​

Details of Recovery​

Inventory of RemainsAll parts recovered
Condition of RemainsRecognizable face

Physical Description​

Hair ColorBlack
Head Hair DescriptionBlack/Gray
Body Hair Description--
Facial Hair DescriptionBlack/Gray
Left Eye ColorBrown
Right Eye ColorBrown
Eye Description--

​

Distinctive Physical Features​

No Known Information

Clothing and Accessories​

Item
Description
Clothing
Black sweater, purple short sleeve shirt, red shorts.
On the Body

Footwear
Black shoes.
On the Body

---

Who is the homeless man killed by police in July?

Essex Mumford was alone in his Mount Airy home on the afternoon of Friday, July 3, when a police detective came to the front door and pulled out his badge.

web.archive.org

(Important info snipped by me)

"One of the first to arrive over the Independence Day weekend was a 6-foot-1 black man, 199 pounds, about 60 years old. No scars, no tattoos, no teeth. He was balding, with a salt-and-pepper beard, and wore black shoes, red shorts, a purple short-sleeved shirt, and a black sweater.
In his chest were four bullet holes.
According to police, he was a homeless man who had been waving a box cutter in the lower concourse of the Municipal Services Building, just north of City Hall. It was about 8:30 Friday morning, when commuters ordinarily would have been streaming through a hallway from Suburban Station. But with many offices closed for the holiday, the area was empty.

One of two officers who responded used a baton to try to knock the utility knife out of the man's hand, but failed. Ignoring repeated commands to drop it, the man lunged at them. They fired their .38 revolvers four times.
At 9:02 a.m., he was pronounced dead in Hahnemann University Hospital's emergency room."

...

"On the day the homeless man was killed, a police technician took prints from all fingers and both palms. The prints were fed into criminal databases kept by the city, the state, and the FBI.
There was a match: the prints of a homeless man, then 56, arrested April 8, 2006, for breaking into a building in North Philadelphia in search of a place to sleep. His name, he told officers, was Morgan Mumford.
Believing they had identified No. 09-2619, police tracked the name to the home of Essex Mumford - who later that day called to say his son was quite alive."

...

"But he had reached a conclusion: No. 09-2619's real name was not Morgan Mumford.
After weeks of trying, he and his partner, Stephen Olszewski, could find no evidence to corroborate the police ID.
Whoever was arrested in 2006 and killed in 2009 had purloined someone else's name, Suplee was sure. "He lied about who he was in life.""

...

"Dolores, who sleeps in Sherwood Forest, looked at the mug shot and right away recognized a regular.
"We called him Poppa Doc," she told Hynicka, "because he's so old.""

 

[sorcoy14]

(I'm having a really hard time posting the link to where I got this info but it's from the Unidentified Wiki)

"Prior to his death, the victim had been homeless in the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania area. He was known to fellow transients by the nickname of "Poppa Doc", but little was known about him.

On July 3, 2009, two officers with the Philadelphia Police Department were called to the Municipal Services Building after receiving reports that the victim was waving and threatening people with a box cutter while suffering a mental health crisis. When one officer tried to use his baton to disarm the victim, he charged him and was shot four times in the chest. The victim was pronounced dead on arrival at a local hospital.

Many question the justification of the shooting considering the victim's mental state and how the officers did not attempt to use a taser.

The victim had been arrested in April of 2006 after he broke into a building where he wanted to sleep. When booked in by police, the victim provided the name "Morgan Mumford", along with a date of birth of September 22, 1949. Further investigation proved that this was a stolen identity."

Discovered​

July 3, 2009

Unidentified for​

13 years

Sex​

Male

Location​

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Age​

55-60

Race​

Black

Height​

6'

Weight​

195 pounds

Body condition​

Recognizable face

Postmortem interval​

Minutes

Cause of death​

Gunshot (Self-defense)