The encounter began around 7:28 a.m. near Lindbergh Boulevard and Eastwick Avenue, where two officers pulled over the driver of a white Chevrolet Malibu. According to Deputy Commissioner Frank Vanore, the driver became erratic, and the officers asked him to step out of the vehicle.

After he complied, Vanore said, the man began fighting with the officers. "He started to struggle with them, and both officers engaged in a fight," Vanore told reporters at the scene.

Both officers deployed their Tasers during the altercation, but the devices were ineffective, according to Vanore. At some point, the man broke away, returned to his car and grabbed a firearm that officers later determined was loaded and fitted with an extended magazine.

One of the officers then fired, striking the driver. The man, whose name has not been released, was taken to a hospital and was undergoing surgery, Vanore said. His condition was not immediately known. Neither officer was injured.

Vanore said both officers were wearing activated body cameras, and that dashboard camera footage also recorded the struggle. "We have a lot of evidence," he said. "We can see in the very limited video that I've seen already that he had that gun in his hand, brandishing that weapon, and one of the officers did fire his weapon."

Aerial footage showed a heavy police presence at the intersection as investigators worked the scene through the morning.

The shooting adds to a long-running local debate over how quickly traffic stops in Philadelphia escalate into use-of-force encounters, and it is likely to renew questions about whether less-lethal options such as Tasers are reliable enough in close-quarters struggles. Under department protocol, the incident will be subject to an internal review, and the body and dash camera recordings are expected to play a central role in that inquiry.

Police have not said what prompted the initial stop or whether the driver will face charges. Anyone with information about the incident is asked to contact the department.