At least one gunman opened fire on police Wednesday as they were serving a drug warrant in Philadelphia, wounding six officers and triggering a standoff that extended into the night, authorities said. Philadelphia police Sgt. Eric Gripp said early Thursday morning that the man was taken into custody after an hourslong standoff with police. Two other officers were trapped inside the house for about five hours after the shooting broke out but were freed by a SWAT team well after darkness fell on the residential neighborhood, the AP reports. None of the officers sustained life-threatening injuries and they have all been released from the hospital, Gripp said. "It's nothing short of a miracle that we don't have multiple officers killed today," said Philadelphia Police Commissioner Richard Ross.
The shooting began around 4:30pm as officers went to a home in north Philadelphia's Nicetown neighborhood to serve a narcotics warrant in an operation "that went awry almost immediately," Ross said. Shots were still being fired three hours later, police said, and officers returned fire. Around 9:30pm, police said, a SWAT team freed the two officers who had been trapped inside, along with three people that officers took into custody before the shooting as part of the drug warrant. But the gunman remained barricaded. "We're doing everything within our power to get him to come out," Ross said before the man was taken into custody, adding: "He has the highest assurance he's not going to be harmed when he comes out."
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