Two days of honors, one of them in the heart of the Northeast, for a veteran officer killed while answering a gun call.
Philadelphia said goodbye to Officer Shane Seiber this week, over two days of ceremonies that began in the Northeast and ended with a cathedral full of uniforms. Seiber, 40, a 10-year veteran of the Philadelphia Police Department, was killed on October 10 while responding to a report of an armed man in West Philadelphia. On Monday night and again on Tuesday, the city he served showed up for him.
The goodbye started here. On Monday evening, officers of the 19th District held a Commander’s March from Archbishop Ryan High School on Academy Road to the John F. Givnish Funeral Home, where a public viewing ran from 6 to 9 p.m. Academy Road was closed in both directions between Comly and Red Lion roads from mid-afternoon so the procession could move. For a few hours, one of the Northeast’s busiest roads belonged to a fallen officer and the people who came to stand in line for him.
On Tuesday, the ceremonies moved to Center City. The day began at 6 a.m. with a walking procession from the Public Services Building at 15th and Callowhill streets to the Cathedral Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul. Mayor Cherelle Parker and Police Commissioner Kevin Bethel joined officers escorting the casket. A second public viewing ran through the morning at the Basilica, followed by a Remembrance and Reflection service and a funeral liturgy, with final police honors outside the cathedral. Burial was private. Seiber is the fourth Philadelphia police officer killed in the line of duty since 2023, and Governor Josh Shapiro ordered flags across Pennsylvania lowered to half-staff in his memory.
The man inside the ceremonies is worth knowing. Seiber grew up in Levittown and Langhorne and lived in Bensalem with his wife of 11 years and their two young children. Before he ever wore a Philadelphia uniform, he wore an Air Force one, serving with the 436th Security Forces Squadron at Dover Air Force Base, including two tours in Iraq. He joined the Police Department in 2016 and spent his career in the 22nd and 19th Districts. His obituary remembers a man known by the nickname “Colgate,” for a smile that was always there, who loved video games, exercise, and jiu-jitsu, and who had a gift for making people laugh. A GoFundMe for his family has raised more than $75,000, one measure of how many people he touched.
The call that killed him came on October 10 in West Philadelphia: a report of a man with a gun. Seiber and his partner, Officer Hector Rodriguez, 33, were both shot. Rodriguez was hit 12 times and survived, and Commissioner Bethel has said his recovery is progressing well, which everyone who has heard the details of that night understands is close to a miracle. The man accused in the shooting, Eric Lewis, 35, is in custody and faces homicide and other charges announced by the District Attorney. Those charges are allegations, and Lewis is presumed innocent unless convicted.
What stays with you, covering a week like this, is the geography of it. A kid from Levittown. An Air Force veteran. A husband and father in Bensalem. A cop who worked the 19th. A viewing on Academy Road, in the middle of the Northeast’s evening commute, where strangers pulled over and stood still. A cathedral downtown, filled before noon on a Tuesday. Philadelphia loses officers rarely enough that each loss still stops the city, and often enough that the ritual of stopping has become its own sad tradition.
Officer Rodriguez is still recovering. The case against the accused will move through the courts, and Philly Rhino will follow it there. For now, the record of this week is simple. A 40-year-old officer answered a call, and two days of honors later, from Academy Road to the Basilica, his city carried him home.
