Off-duty homicide detective who shot and killed a man in 2024 is cleared of wrongdoing, sources say
Law enforcement sources and attorneys for Robert Jones's family said no weapon was recovered on Jones or in his car at the scene of the fatal shooting.
The Philadelphia homicide detective who shot and killed a man who approached his car at a stoplight last year has been cleared of wrongdoing by the district attorney’s office, according to two law enforcement sources.
After a 10-month investigation into the shooting, prosecutors determined Wednesday that Detective Chris Sweeney did not commit a crime when he shot and killed Robert Jones, 54, in October.
A spokesperson for the district attorney’s office declined to comment Thursday. A spokesperson for the police department could not immediately be reached.
The case had drawn outrage and protests from members of the community and Jones’ family, who said that Jones was unarmed and nonviolent, and that Sweeney shot him suddenly and without reason.
Sweeney, a 14-year veteran of the force, had just finished his shift the night of Oct. 3, 2024, and was driving home in his personal car when he came to a stop at a red light at the intersection of Willits Road and Holme Avenue in Northeast Philadelphia.
Around the same time, Jones, a roadside assistance operator, was driving through the area and pulled up behind Sweeney. For reasons that remain unclear, Jones got out of his car and approached Sweeney’s vehicle.
Police said Sweeney, while still seated in the driver’s seat of his black Subaru, then opened fire multiple times through his window, killing Jones.
Investigators who responded to the scene did not recover a weapon on Jones or in his car, according to multiple law enforcement sources and lawyer Shaka Johnson, a civil rights attorney representing Jones’ family. Police even opened nearby manholes in search of a potential weapon, but did not locate one, Johnson said.
Kevin O’Brien, another lawyer for the family, faulted prosecutors’ decision not to file charges in the case and said Jones’ relatives planned to file a wrongful-death lawsuit.
“Our client was unarmed and yet he was shot by a purportedly well-trained and long-tenured detective,” he said. “Not armed. Not a gun. Not a knife. Nothing.”
O’Brien said the family could not understand why the district attorney’s office did not see the shooting as a crime.
“It’s difficult for them to understand anybody saying that this was a justifiable shooting or a justifiable use of force,” he said. “It clearly wasn’t.”
While the reason for prosecutors’ decision remains unclear, Pennsylvania’s “stand your ground” laws allow the use of deadly force in self-defense if people reasonably believe they are in danger while in a place they are legally allowed to be, like their home, their car, or a public space.
Jones was the oldest of four boys and was raised in the Wilson Park housing project of South Philadelphia, his younger brother Michael said.
Jones had run into trouble when he was younger, his brother said, and was convicted of theft and illegal gun possession in 1991. But Jones dedicated the rest of his life to work and family, his brother said, and he worked for nearly a decade as a groundskeeper for the Eagles and more than 20 years with Southwark Metal Manufacturing.
Jones was the second of his mother’s children to be killed in a shooting, his brother said. Her youngest son, Jamal, was killed in a drive-by shooting in 2001, he said.