Police investigate at the location where a city inspector shot and killed himself Wednesday night. (Matt Grady/for NewsWorks.)
The man responsible for city inspections at the site of the fatal building collapse in Philadelphia killed himself Wednesday night in his pick-up on a Roxborough street, police say.
The 52-year-old man was found by a passer-by about 9:10 p.m. on Shawmont Avenue, dead of a gunshot wound to the chest, police said.
Philly.com has indentified this man as Ronald Wagenhoffer, the lead L&I inspector of the building that collapsed on Market Street last week, killing six people and injuring thirteen. The building being demolished collapsed onto an adjacent Salvation Army thrift store. Those who died were employees or shoppers at the store.
Based on photos and video, demolition experts have repeatedly identified obvious, and apparently unsafe, conditions at the site.
At the scene Wednesday night, residents told of their experiences.
The vehicle was only steps away from where city and state officials dedicated the recently-completed Shawmont Trail in March.
Tom DiGiacomo of Roxborough, an avid fisherman, had parked his van on the 100 block of Shawmont Avenue, opposite the victim's F-150, to walk down to the river while waiting on family members running an errand.
Parking under a former rail viaduct before 9 p.m., DiGiacomo said he exited his vehicle and noticed the victim's pick-up.
He remembered the engine running, but not being able to see inside because of the truck's tinted glass. He then headed onto the trail that leads into the woods.
"I was right here and I didn't hear a thing," he said, noting that gunfire is not uncommon in the adjacent woods from small-time hunters and can plinkers.
When he returned, DiGiacomo saw the police tape – and his van squarely inside of it.
Neighbor Jennifer Doxzon was on her porch. She recalled hearing arguing between the victim and a female, and then hearing a sharp sound, but wasn't sure that it was a gunshot.
"It happened so fast," she said. "It was just a bunch of screaming, and then that noise, and then I ran into the house because I wasn't sure what was going on."
