A court spokesperson said the suspension would last until the president judge was assured that deputies had received proper training.
Philadelphia courts are suspending eviction lockouts involving the landlord-tenant officer — a court-appointed lawyer who enforces eviction orders using private security contractors — after the third eviction-related shooting episode since March.
The decision came the day after a deputy landlord-tenant officer shot a 33-year-old woman in the leg, less than a month after another deputy shot at (but did not hit) a dog, and four months after another deputy shot a 35-year-old woman in the head. All of these occurredduring attempted evictions.
Before the March episode, there had been no reported shooting incidents involving landlord-tenant officer contractors in more than two decades.
Martin O’Rourke, a spokesperson for the city’s First Judicial District, said that President Judge Patrick Dugan had reached an agreement with the appointed landlord-tenant officer, lawyer Marisa Shuter, to suspend lockouts.