Saying that three other officers had shown restraint by not firing at an unarmed man on an East Germantown street last year, Police Commissioner Richard Ross on Wednesday announced that he was terminating Police Officer Eric Ruch Jr. in the shooting of Dennis Plowden Jr., who died after a bullet went through his left hand and into his head.
“The three other officers, including his partner, had taken cover and given themselves an opportunity to assess the situation,” Ross said at a news conference at Police Headquarters. “He did not do that, for whatever reason, thus putting himself in harm’s way and in turn being the only one to fire one fatal shot.”
Ruch, 30, a 10-year veteran of the force who had been assigned to the 35th District in Ogontz, was given 30 days’ notice with intent to dismiss for the Dec. 27, 2017, shooting of the 25-year-old.
“It’s not a perfect world,” Ross said. “Officers are not always able to take cover. But it is striking that three of the four do, and one does not.”
The shooting capped a high-speed car chase that began when officers spotted Plowden driving a white Hyundai that had been connected to a homicide a week before, police said. On the day he died, Plowden, who was not a suspect in the slaying, was taking Christmas gifts to his mother, Chinita McCoy, in East Germantown.
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