A man who allegedly shot and injured a Philadelphia police officer late on Thursday pledges allegiance to Islamic State, officials said Friday.
Philadelphia Police Capt. James Clark made the statement to Philly.com, identifying the shooting suspect as Edward Archer.
Police Commissioner Richard Ross echoed the statement at a news conference on Friday, saying that Archer confessed to the shooting "in the name of Islam." But Mayor Jim Kenney told ABC-6 that the attack had nothing to do with "being a Muslim or the Islamic faith," and everything to do with mental illness.
Archer's mother told Philly.com that her son had been hearing voices, and Ross said investigators are not yet sure whether he was truly radicalized. Late Friday, a U.S. Muslim advocacy group told Reuters that Archer didn't appear to be a mosque-going Muslim.
"At this hour, it does not appear that he was an observant or mosque-going Muslim" in the local community, said Jacob Bender, executive director of the Philadelphia Chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations.
Ross alleges that Archer fired 13 shots late Thursday, hitting Officer Jessie Hartnett and his car. Ross said the officer returned fire, hitting Archer at least three times. Hartnett was in stable condition Friday.
ABC-6 obtained surveillance footage of the incident, which can be viewed here.
"This is absolutely one of the scariest things I've ever seen," Ross said at a news conference early Friday. "This guy tried to execute the police officer. The police officer had no idea he was coming."
He said Hartnett was in his cruiser in West Philadelphia when the shooter approached from the sidewalk and started firing into the driver's-side window as he got closer and closer to the car.
The suspect ran away but was quickly apprehended by other officers, authorities said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.