Lauretha A. Vaird (August 4, 1952 – January 2, 1996) was a
Philadelphia Police Department
The Philadelphia Police Department (PPD or Philly PD) is the law enforcement agency, police agency responsible for law enforcement and investigations within the City of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The PPD is one of the oldest municipal police a ...
officer who was shot dead by the rapper
Christopher Roney aka "Cool C" during a botched armed
bank robbery
Bank robbery is the criminal act of stealing from a bank, specifically while bank employees and customers are subjected to force, violence, or a threat of violence. This refers to robbery of a bank branch or teller, as opposed to other bank- ...
in January 1996. Roney attempted to rob the bank with another rapper,
Warren McGlone aka "Steady B", and another man, Mark Canty. During the robbery, Vaird was mortally wounded by a gunshot wound in the abdomen and died soon after. Vaird was Philadelphia's first female police officer to be shot and killed in the line of duty.
Background
Vaird was a single mother of two boys. Before she became a police officer, she worked as a teacher's aide at Pickett Middle School in
Germantown Germantown or German Town may refer to:
Places
Australia
* Germantown, Queensland, a locality in the Cassowary Coast Region
United States
* Germantown, California, the former name of Artois, a census-designated place in Glenn County
* Ge ...
. She joined the Philadelphia police force in 1986 at the age of 34. Before her death, she was a 9-year veteran with the 25th District.
Murder
On January 2, 1996, at around 8:20 a.m., "Cool C" and "Steady B", and their accomplice, Canty, attempted to rob a
PNC Bank
The PNC Financial Services Group, Inc. (stylized as PNC) is an American bank holding company and financial services corporation based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Its banking subsidiary, PNC Bank, operates in 27 states and the District of ...
branch in
Feltonville, Philadelphia, at 4710 Rising Sun Avenue.
The men had stolen a green minivan for the job which was driven by McGlone who acted as the
getaway driver
A crime scene getaway is the act of :wikt:flee, fleeing the location where one has broken the law. It is an act that the offender(s) may or may not have planned in detail, resulting in a variety of outcomes. A :crime scene is the "location of ...
. Roney and Canty went into the branch before it was due to open. Canty carried a 9 millimeter semi-automatic handgun and Roney was armed with a .38 caliber revolver. The bank had no security guards, which influenced the men to rob that particular branch. They held three bank employees at gunpoint and demanded access to the bank vault. Within moments of entering the bank, the silent alarm was tripped. Officer Vaird, who was in the area at the time and riding alone in a patrol car, responded to the alarm.
Canty forced two of the bank employees to take him to the vault while Roney stood guard by the bank entrance covering the third employee. As Vaird entered the door to the bank with her weapon drawn, she was shot in the abdomen by Roney. Vaird was wearing a bulletproof vest, but it was without its bullet-resistant panels. After he shot her, Roney left the bank through the front door. Canty fled through a side entrance and left his gun at the scene. Roney then exchanged fire with another police officer, Donald Patterson, who arrived shortly after Vaird. Roney was able to escape and dropped his gun on the sidewalk outside the entrance to the bank. He got into the minivan with McGlone and the two men then fled. None of the three suspects stole anything from the bank.
Vaird was taken to
St. Christopher's Hospital for Children
St. Christopher's Hospital for Children is a pediatric acute care hospital located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The hospital has 188 beds and is affiliated with both the Drexel University College of Medicine and the Temple University School of Me ...
, where she was pronounced dead at 9:56 am, having been killed by the single shot to the abdomen.
Aftermath
The two pistols used by the assailants were found separately outside different entrances to the bank. The stolen minivan that Roney and McGlone had escaped in was found abandoned about a mile from the bank. The police also found various items of clothing used as disguises by Canty and Roney. This evidence led to their warrants and arrests. The guns were traced back to both Canty and McGlone.
[ The .38 caliber revolver used by Roney belonged to Anthony Brown, a relative of Canty. It had been stolen from Brown and was last seen in Canty's possession before the bank robbery. The 9mm semi-automatic pistol was traced back to Richelle Parker, a friend of McGlone, who had bought the gun for him.][
McGlone was arrested outside his home two days later on January 4, 1996. He was charged with murder in the death of officer Vaird. After questioning McGlone, police issued a warrant for the arrests of Canty and Roney. Canty was arrested during a traffic stop in ]Maryland
Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean to ...
at a later date.[ Roney surrendered to the police on January 6, 1996.][
Vaird died at the age of 43 and is buried at Ivy Hill Cemetery in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
]
Trial and conviction
On October 30, 1996, McGlone and Canty were both sentenced to life in prison without possibility of parole.[ McGlone is an inmate at the ]State Correctional Institution – Houtzdale
State Correctional Institution – Houtzdale is a 1500-bed correctional facility located outside Houtzdale in southern Clearfield County, Pennsylvania, along Pennsylvania Route 153.
Building SCI Houtzdale
The facility cost $70 MillionGoogle New ...
and his inmate ID number is DD6864. Canty is an inmate at the State Correctional Institution – Mahanoy
State Correctional Institution – Mahanoy is a 1,000 cell, all male, Medium-Security, correctional facility located along Interstate 81 in Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania.
Construction of SCI-Mahanoy
Mahanoy was one of four"Schuylkill To Get Ne ...
and his inmate ID number is DD6842.[ Roney was identified as the actual killer of Vaird, as he had been the one to fire the gun that killed her. On October 30, 1996, Roney was found guilty of first-degree murder, three counts of robbery, conspiracy, aggravated assault, burglary and possession of an instrument of crime.][ On November 1, 1996, he received the ]death penalty
Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the state-sanctioned practice of deliberately killing a person as a punishment for an actual or supposed crime, usually following an authorized, rule-governed process to conclude that t ...
for murdering Vaird. He is currently on death row
Death row, also known as condemned row, is a place in a prison that houses inmates awaiting Capital punishment, execution after being convicted of a capital crime and sentenced to death. The term is also used figuratively to describe the state of ...
awaiting execution and is an inmate at the State Correctional Institution – Greene
The State Correctional Institution – Greene (SCI Greene) is a maximum security prison, classified as a Supermax,[Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...](_blank)
Governor Ed Rendell
Edward Gene Rendell (; born January 5, 1944) is an American lawyer, prosecutor, politician, and author. He served as the 45th Governor of Pennsylvania from 2003 to 2011, as chair of the national Democratic Party, and as the 96th Mayor of Philade ...
and his execution date was set for March 9, 2006 (Rendell was Philadelphia's Mayor at the time of the robbery/murder).[ He was granted a ]stay of execution
A stay of execution is a court order to temporarily suspend the execution of a court judgment or other court order. The word "execution" does not always mean the death penalty. It refers to the imposition of whatever judgment is being stayed and i ...
from Pennsylvania Judge Gary Glazer on February 1, 2006, until all post-conviction litigation was resolved. His execution was set for January 8, 2015, but he was granted another stay of execution by Pennsylvania Judge Luis Felipe Restrepo
Luis Felipe Restrepo (born 1959), known commonly as L. Felipe Restrepo, is a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit and former United States district judge of the United States District Court for th ...
on December 5, 2014.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Vaird, Lauretha
1996 in Pennsylvania
1996 murders in the United States
American murder victims
American police officers killed in the line of duty
Bank robberies
Burials at Ivy Hill Cemetery (Philadelphia)
Crimes in Philadelphia
Deaths by firearm in Pennsylvania
Deaths by person in Pennsylvania
Female murder victims
History of Philadelphia
January 1996 crimes
January 1996 events in the United States
Philadelphia Police Department
People murdered in Pennsylvania
Robberies in the United States