40-year-old Stephan Liczbinski was a 12 year veteran of the Philadelphia police force who had just been promoted to Sergeant. His promising career was cut short Saturday morning when he was ambushed and murdered by two people wearing “Muslim garb” while responding to a bank robbery in progress:

PHILADELPHIA — Philadelphia police said a veteran police officer was shot and killed in the Port Richmond section of the city on Saturday.

Stephen Liczbinski, 40, a 12-year veteran who had just been promoted to sergeant, was shot by at least two men shortly before 11:30 a.m. Saturday, authorities said.

He was responding to a robbery at a Bank of America branch inside the ShopRite at Castor and Aramingo.

The men fled, and Liczbinski confronted them at Almond and Schiller streets about 15 minutes later. He was shot multiple times with a high-powered rifle, police said.

“It is my understanding that he was either in the car or had just gotten out of the car at the time he was struck,” Police Commissioner Charles H. Ramsey said.

Liczbinski was taken to Temple University Hospital in critical condition, where he died on Saturday afternoon.

The men fled the area and were later spotted by a canine officer responding to the robbery and the report of an officer down. That officer shot and killed one of the men at D and Loudon, police said. The suspect died at the hospital, police said.

Authorities said Liczbinski was married with two sons and a daughter.

Our hearts go out to his family in this time of need. There have been several arrests made and it looks like the burqa was a disguise used by some garden variety degenerates:

Authorities have charged one suspect and are searching for a second in the fatal shooting of a police officer after a bank robbery in northeast Philadelphia.

Levon Warner, 38, was charged with murder, robbery, conspiracy and related offenses, Deputy Commissioner William Blackburn said at a news conference Sunday. A second man, Eric Floyd, 33, believed to have escaped from a halfway house in Berks County, is also wanted on a homicide charge.

A third suspect, Howard Cain, 33, was shot and killed Saturday by a canine officer who was responding to the robbery and the report of an officer down.

Sgt. Stephen Liczbinski was fatally shot with an assault rifle late Saturday morning while responding to a robbery at a Bank of America branch inside a ShopRite supermarket in Port Richmond, authorities said.

Police said the bank at Ontario Street and Aramingo Avenue was held up late Saturday morning. The suspects fled in a vehicle after the robbery, and Liczbinski confronted them a few blocks away at Almond and Schiller streets at about 11:30 a.m.

“The sergeant didn’t have a chance,” Blackburn said, adding that Liczbinski was shot at least five times.

Police recovered two vehicles, one of which contained a high-powered assault rifle with 25 live rounds. Police said the rifle was not a weapon that could have been possessed legally.

From the vehicles and an alley near one of the shooting scenes, they also found other weapons, two sets of Islamic clothing and $38,000.

Shortly after the robbery, Warner reported his van stolen, Blackburn said. But police later determined he was involved in the crime and that his vehicle had been used as a getaway car.

The illegal assault rifle and the “Islamic garb” will no doubt set off red flags for many, but the clothing was discarded after the fact so you can’t rule out the possibility that these people were non-Muslims who were playing upon the the fear of being called a bigot that pervades big northern cities. Burqas are a disguise that people are increasingly feeling unable to question, which means more criminals will be donning them to gain access to victims.

This report gives more details on the disguises worn by the robbers, as well as a description of Sgt. Liczbinski’s final minutes. Hard reading but worth your time.

Daniel Pipes has been talking about the security threat of the Burqa for a while. Read his piece and see how criminals, Muslim and non-Muslim alike, are using western multicultural sensibilities to their advantage, resulting in theft, murder and mayhem.

Especially interesting was the escape from England of terrorist Mustaf Jama who fled England after killing a cop. English social mores facilitated his escape when he donned a burqa and stole his sisters passport and was able to pass through English airport checkpoints unmolested, after the 7/7 bombings.

The ironic part of this respect we give the burqa is that it isn’t in the Koran. Don’t believe me, look it up yourself. Modest Muslim women covered their hair and wore cloaks. But there’s nothing in the Koran that tells women to go about Ninja style.

Here in America Burqa clad bandits have been on a tear, leading some people to think of banning the garment. Planck’s Constant has a good overview.

Gateway Pundit has more. Trench beat me to it by mere hours.

Update: At least one of the robbers is a Muslim but right now all three are thought to have attended the same mosque.  That Mosque is refusing to bury the man who was killed, because bank robbery is un-Islamic. A good sign but it’s a decision that even other Muslims think is political rather than sincere. This exchange is from the comments of Tariq Nelson’s blog:

#
Rasheed Moore, on May 8th, 2008 at 7:21 pm Said:

I think there is also some blame on the shoulders of the Muslim leadership in Philly for years a lot of those Masajid have been built on donations coming from brothers involved in illegal activity now when it’s politically expeidient they renounce them. I am not saying this is the case with the Germantown Masjid or the leadership there but in general the community has in the past looked the other way when it comes to crime.

LaterRasheed gets this response:

#
Salafi Burnout, on May 8th, 2008 at 9:53 pm Said:

@ Rasheed Moore

You are 100% correct and no one wants to say it. The ranks of the salafis in Philly are filled with thieves, rapists, and drug dealers, but they look the other way because the brother is “upon the manhaj”

Last year, three Muslims from the Germantown masjid robbed a Wal-Mart store of $300K

But these same brothers are up in arms when a brother’s pants are too long or beard is too short

It sounds like the Umma in Philadelphia is over run with radicals who tolerate crime until it becomes public. Maybe it’s time for those Muslims complaining on the Tariq Nelson site to take back their mosques from these criminal elements.