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The Philadelphia city worker who heinously gunned down one police officer and left another critically wounded in an early Saturday morning ambush had a prior murder charge tossed when police tried to “torpedo” the investigation, the city’s woke district attorney claimed.
DA Larry Krasner was forced to explain Tuesday why alleged cop killer Eric Lewis, 35, was allowed to walk the streets despite two previous violent cases — including a 2019 road-rage double shooting where he was charged with murder.
“The excellent prosecutors did everything humanly possible with a deeply troubled investigation,” the District Attorney’s Office said in a statement to FOX 29 Philadelphia.
“A highly-respected judge was forced to find Lewis not guilty due to that troubling and deficient investigation.”
The case unraveled before reaching trail after revelations that one of the investigating officers was secretly dating Lewis’ sister, according to Krasner, a progressive who was first elected in 2018.
The rogue cop allegedly made up a phantom suspect named “Spice” to “torpedo his own testimony” and shield Lewis, Krasner said.
As a result, Lewis was acquitted of those charges in 2023 following a two-day bench trial.
The betrayal was so stunning that it prompted the judge to take the rare step of ordering an internal affairs review into the officers involved in the case, the district attorney said.
“The judge is from a law enforcement family, that judge, in his whole career — and he’s highly respected by both sides — to the best of my knowledge has never sent police officers to be investigated by internal affairs,” Krasner claimed.
Lewis also managed to dodge 2021 assault and weapons charges after the key witness and victim in that case died, according FOX 29.
The city’s glaring failures vetting Lewis’ employment are now under intense scrutiny, as he was somehow employed by the Philadelphia Water Department at the time of Saturday’s deadly ambush.
“We will continue to examine every aspect of this matter, including the prior investigation and prosecution,” the Philadelphia Police Department told The Post in a statement.
“Where accountability is warranted, we will act, as Commissioner [Kevin] Bethel has already demonstrated. There will be a time to address the full record, but it is not now.”
The statement added that “we will have to more to say. Right now, these families deserve our attention, our support and our respect. “
Officer Shane Seiber, 40, was shot three times and died later in the hospital Saturday after responding to reports of an armed man on a porch early Saturday morning in West Philadelphia, according to police.
“He fought valiantly, but he lost his life today,” Police Commissioner Kevin Bethel told a news conference later Saturday.
He described the shootout as “a brutal, senseless, horrific killing.”
Seiber, who died in the hospital surrounded by his wife and family, leaves behind a daughter, 3, and a son, 7, according to police.
His unidentified partner, a father of five, was shot 12 times and is now in stable condition, Bethel said, adding that “he’s not out of the woods yet.”
The suspected shooter fled down an alley before opening fire on nine more responding officers, none of whom were hit, Krasner told a news conference Saturday.
Lewis was arrested hours later while hiding up in a tree, and now faces roughly 80 separate charges, including murder and 10 counts of attempted murder, Krasner said.
Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle Parker’s administration and the Philadelphia Water Department did not immediately respond to The Post’s requests for comment.