Former Philadelphia police officer sentenced to at least 8 years in prison for shooting 12-year-old boy

PHILADELPHIA – A fired Philadelphia police officer who pleaded guilty to the murder of a fleeing 12-year-old boy was sentenced Monday to at least eight years in prison.

Edsaul Mendoza, a five-year veteran of the police force who was fired a week after the 2022 shooting, pleaded guilty in April to the premeditated murder of Thomas “TJ” Siderio.

Mendoza said in court he felt grief and regret shortly before being sentenced to 8 to 20 years. He was originally charged with first-degree murder and manslaughter but agreed to a plea deal. A message was left with his attorney seeking comment, and exact details of the sentencing terms were not immediately available.

Prosecutors said the 12-year-old boy was lying unarmed on the ground when Mendoza fired the fatal shot into his back. Police said the youth first fired at an unmarked police car, wounding one of the four plainclothes officers in the car.

Authorities said the boy threw the gun about 40 feet down before he was shot and then either stumbled or fell to the ground.

Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner said surveillance video contradicted some of the officer’s statements, including Mendoza’s statement that the boy pointed a gun at him and that he was standing in the street when he fired, not nearly above him on the sidewalk, according to information prosecutors presented to a grand jury.

Four officers were in an unmarked vehicle looking for a teenager they wanted to speak to about a firearms investigation, police said. They saw Siderio and an unnamed 17-year-old and maneuvered the car around the block and alongside them to stop them.

Prosecutors said that at almost the same time officers turned on their red and blue lights, a gunshot blasted through the rear passenger window and ricocheted around the car. One officer was treated for injuries to his eye and face caused by shattered glass.

Mendoza and another officer in the passenger side got out and fired one shot each, according to police. Mendoza then pursued Siderio down the block, firing twice and hitting the boy once in the back, from “relatively close range,” prosecutors say.