By Lauren Dugan
Police were called to the 2500 block of South 71st Street just before 3:30 a.m. Saturday after a woman reported she was being held at gunpoint by her boyfriend who threatened to burn down the house.
When police arrived they found the house engulfed in flames and a noticeable smell of gasoline.
Officers said they rescued a 56-year-old woman from the home and returned inside to remove her 90-year-old grandmother.
When officers went inside, they were allegedly met by a man who pointed a handgun at them but did not fire. Officers and the elderly woman were able to escape the house unharmed, according to police.
The victim’s boyfriend’s body was later found on the second floor of the charred home, according to police. The cause of death is still under investigation.
In an exclusive interview with FOX 29’s Lauren Dugan, Tammy Morris refuted the Philadelphia Police Department’s account of what happened on Saturday morning. Morris claims she saved herself from the home and went back inside to get her grandmother when officers refused.
“I’m so upset with Philadelphia police, and then to get on camera and lie and say that you helped, say that you rescued two women, you didn’t rescue nobody,” Morris said.
She claims that police encouraged her to jump out a window when she saw her boyfriend pour gasoline around the home and turn up the gas on the stove.
Once Morris fled the house, she allegedly told cops that her grandmother was inside but they would not enter the home, so she went in to get her.
I spoke with the woman who was pistol whipped by her boyfriend, who died when he set her house on fire in Eastwick Saturday AM.
— Lauren Dugan (@LaurenDuganTV) March 28, 2021
She just got out of the hospital + says SHE saved herself + ran back inside to rescue her grandma, *not* Philly Police, as they reported. @FOX29philly pic.twitter.com/l8tZQpsbN4
“I appreciate [police] every time they come out and I still respect the cops, because it ain’t all them, but whoever was in charge definitely didn’t handle it right,” Morris said.
A spokesperson from the Philadelphia Police Department on Sunday night said it is “regrettable that accurate information was not relayed to the media” and that preliminary information may change during the investigation.
Meanwhile, Morris is now left with nothing after the fire destroyed her home. She is living with her sister and hoping insurance can help recover what she lost.
