The murder of a Philadelphia police officer during a bank robbery continues to dominate the front page of the Inquirer. As it turns out, all three of the robber/murderers are convicted robbers who have served time. From today's account:

Police charged a journeyman boxer with murder and issued a warrant yesterday for an alleged accomplice in connection with the "assassination" of Philadelphia Police Sgt. Stephen Liczbinski on Saturday after a bank heist by three ex-cons.

"I'm going to let him have it," Howard Cain, 33, allegedly said as he turned his high-powered rifle on Liczbinski Saturday afternoon. Police shot Cain dead minutes later.

Cain's words were recalled in a confession by Levon T. Warner, 39, the local boxer and the only one of the three suspects in custody, according to a police source.

Warner, of the 5400 block of Westminster Street in West Philadelphia, was arraigned last night on charges of murder, robbery and conspiracy. He provided a detailed account of his part in Liczbinski's death, according to the source.

Police and the FBI expanded their search yesterday for the fugitive suspect, Eric DeShann Floyd, 33, from Philadelphia to Lancaster, Pa., where Floyd once lived. Floyd should be considered armed and extremely dangerous, police said.

Floyd escaped from a Reading halfway house recently, police said. He knew Cain from prison, and the two shared a rundown, corner apartment in Fairhill that neighbors described as a haven for transients.

Court records show that all three men have been convicted of robbery, and Cain and Warner were friends, according to the police source. The three allegedly devised an elaborate plan, complete with disguises and military-style weaponry, to rob the Bank of America branch in the ShopRite supermarket on Aramingo Avenue in Port Richmond on Saturday.

Yeah, there is. Merely by having the guns, the trio committed a serious gun crime which would have sent them all back to the slammer.

I'm wondering, is it possible that armed robbers don't follow gun control laws?

While I'm glad to see the criminal histories of these killers reported, as might be expected, its the Gun That Did It which really gets top billing.

Here's today's front page:

Since I posted about this yesterday, the perps have been identified and several details have changed, but the gun is obviously the most important aspect of the case, it's picture dominating the page.

But it is no longer an "AK-47." Now it's described as "a Chinese SKS assault rifle," which "assassinated" the officer because it penetrates vehicles:

"That officer was assassinated on the streets of Philadelphia," Mayor Nutter said in an interview yesterday. "There was nothing that could have protected him - that weapon penetrates vehicles."

Deputy Police Commissioner William Blackburn said Liczbinski's patrol car was found with a single bullet hole in the door. It was unclear yesterday exactly where Liczbinski was when he was struck, though he appeared to have been getting out of the car at the time.

The three suspects ditched the Jeep in the 3400 block of North Miller Street, four blocks from where the officer lay dying. Cain hopped into Warner's Chrysler Town and Country minivan but was cornered by police in the 500 block of East Louden Street, near Roosevelt Boulevard.

Cain got out of the van with the SKS rifle and police shot him dead. His gun apparently jammed with 25 of 30 rounds unspent. Five spent shell casings were found at the scene of the officer's slaying.

Police recovered the rifle outside the van. Inside was a .44-caliber revolver loaded with five rounds, two sets of Muslim clothing, $38,000 in cash taken from the bank, and two GPS "bloodhound" units, used by banks to track stolen cash. Blackburn said police used the GPS signal to track the suspects.

In a nearby alley, police found a loaded .22-caliber revolver and other clothing. Also recovered during the investigation were another set of Muslim clothing, a dreadlocks wig, and a dust mask, all believed worn as disguises.

Interestingly, yesterday Mayor Nutter called the killing "senseless," while today it's an "assassination."

Are assassinations senseless?

Whatever. The most important aspect of the case, according to the Inquirer, will be the gun, which would have been banned under Mayor Nutter's illegal and unconstitutional gun laws:

The slaying also is likely to become Exhibit No. 1 in the city's effort to adopt stricter gun laws. One of several laws that Nutter signed last month in defiance of the state legislature bans the kind of weapon used to kill Liczbinski. The city's ability to enact its own gun laws is the subject of a lawsuit against the state.

If someone can explain to me how that law would in any way have deterred these career criminals from getting this gun (or any other gun capable of killing a police officer) I'm all ears.

MORE: Not that anyone in the gun-banning community would care, but the SKS is not an assault weapon, nor was it designed as one. From the Wiki entry:

The SKS has a conventional carbine layout, with a wooden stock and no pistol grip. Most versions are fitted with an integral folding bayonet which hinges down from the end of the barrel, and some versions, such as the Yugoslavian-made M59/66 variant, are equipped with a grenade launching attachment. As with the American M1 Carbine, the SKS is shorter and less powerful than the semi-automatic rifles which preceded it -- most notably, the Soviet SVT series and the American M1 Garand. Contrary to popular belief it is not a modern assault rifle. This is because it does not meet all of the criteria of a true assault rifle, though there are some variants that fall closer to the definition. It does not possess the capability for selective fire, and the basic design does not possess a removable magazine. Some selective-fire variants were produced in the PRC; however, the basic design of the SKS is semi-automatic in nature. The carbine's ten-round box magazine is fed from a stripper clip (see below), and rounds stored in the magazine can be removed by depressing a magazine catch (thus opening the "floor" of the magazine and allowing the rounds to fall out) located forward of the trigger guard.

Such conversions (whether legal or not) tend not to work out, as the gun was not designed that way. Hence, they have a propensity to jam. From an SKS FAQ site:

Myth #8 -- "The SKS uses high capacity magazines."

There is actually some truth to this -- but only some. As noted above, some Chinese SKS Carbines were sold with detachable high-capacity magazines. However the vast majority of SKS Carbines were sold with non-detachable ten-round magazines. Magazine capacities of ten-rounds or less are not typically considered high capacity.

In addition, since 1998 it has been illegal to convert standard SKS Carbines to use aftermarket detachable high-capacity magazines. Such aftermarket magazines are prone to jamming and are often difficult to use, thus owners usually become disillusioned and revert to the original fixed magazine.

Note that while it is still legal under certain restrictive circumstances to convert an SKS Carbine to utilize detachable high-capacity magazines, reliability and usability problems persist. And doing such a conversion legally often involves more cost than simply purchasing a different rifle that already uses high-capacity magazines. Hence, while a large number of SKS owners have toyed with these magazines, most do not continue to use them.

(Italics in original.)

Which confirms the suspicion voiced by commenter dr kill yesterday:

Could'nt be an AK. They never jam.

Right?

MORE: Astoundingly, Mayor Nutter stated that the NRA should apologize for the murder!

"I think it's insane," Nutter said. "The fact that we put forward a piece of legislation to prevent the sale and use and transfer of assault weapons and have a Philadelphia police officer assaulted on the streets with one, I think makes it pretty clear to anyone who is confused about this issue that there's no reason for any citizen, any person other than in law enforcement or in the military to have such a weapon."

He added: "There's no legitimate argument by the NRA, they need to get in the real world where the rest of us live and come to grips with these kinds of issues. They owe an apology to the family for their staunch opposition over many, many years blocking legislative support for these kinds of matters."

According to Nutter's logic, because an officer was shot by career criminals with an "assault weapon" the criminals already weren't allowed to have, that means law-abiding citizens should not be allowed have them either (even though the weapon used was not an "assault weapon").

(In his mind, if criminals shoot cops, that means citizens shouldn't have guns.)

And if you don't agree with Nutter, you're "confused."