A former Philadelphia cop who shot dead an unarmed 12-year-old boy in 2022 and eventually pleaded guilty was sentenced Monday to eight to 12 years in prison.
Ex-cop Edsaul Mendoza, 28, had pleaded guilty in April to third-degree murder in the death of Thomas “T.J.” Siderio after a foot chase that ensued when the boy allegedly fired a gun into a car full of plainclothes officers, injuring one of them with broken glass as the bullet ricocheted around inside.
Mendoza had been sitting in an unmarked Chevy Cruz with three colleagues in South Philly as they investigated a social media post about a teenager with a gun at about 7:20 p.m. on March 1, 2022. When they saw T.J. and a 17-year-old they had been seeking for questioning, they flagged the duo down. No sooner had they activated their lights than the shot came. Mendoza and another officer leaped out of the car and gave chase, shooting.
Indications were that T.J., fleeing, had ditched the gun about 40 feet before he was shot, and that Mendoza knew it, investigators said. The boy was on the ground when Mendoza’s fatal shot entered through his lower right back and exited through the left side of his chest, WCAU-TV reported.
Video reviewed by prosecutors showed that T.J. had “stopped running and was possibly surrendering” and was “essentially face down on the sidewalk” and looking back toward Mendoza when he was shot, Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner said when the officer was charged in May 2022.
Mendoza, a five-year veteran, was fired a few weeks after the shooting. Charges of first-degree murder and voluntary manslaughter had been dropped as part of his plea deal.
With News Wire Services
