Police have confirmed that a 12-year-old boy died after being shot in the back by a plainclothes officer.

According to local reports, Thomas Siderio Jr was killed on Tuesday evening in Philadelphia while fleeing cops.

Police said he was fatally shot moments after officers said a bullet was fired into an unmarked car.

Siderio Jr was taken to Penn Presbyterian Medical Center and pronounced dead a few minutes later.

According to police, one of the four officers in the car was hit in the face and eye by shattered glass and was treated and released.

Police said in a statement Wednesday that the fatal shooting occurred while four officers were responding to social media posts involving a gun.

Officers reported seeing two young men on a corner, one of whom appeared to be carrying a handgun.

They claimed to have recognised the older one as a suspect in the firearms investigation.

Officers then activated the car’s emergency red and blue lights, which was followed by a gunshot and the rear passenger window shattering, according to police.

Five images are captured by a nearby doorbell camera.

According to Deputy Commissioner Benjamin Naish, the officers could have been killed or seriously injured.

According to police, two officers got out of the driver’s side of the car and fired at the fleeing youth, who was holding a gun.

One of the officers pursued Siderio down the street, firing twice more and striking the boy once in the upper right back.

According to police, the bullet exited through his chest.

The other adolescent, a 17-year-old male who was not identified, was taken into custody in the firearms case but later released, according to police.

Officers recovered a 9mm semiautomatic handgun with a laser that had been reported stolen, according to Naish.

He stated that there was one bullet in the chamber and five more in the clip.

According to Naish, police could not say definitively Wednesday whether Siderio shot into the police vehicle or pointed the weapon at officers as he fled.

Police also declined to comment on whether the recovered gun was part of the initial investigation.

“While the medical examiner’s findings indicate that the bullet entered his back, this does not rule out the possibility that he was fleeing or that a gun was pointed at or near the officer.”

“It doesn’t mean he wasn’t still a threat to the officer,” Naish said.

As part of the investigation, he said, ballistics evidence had been gathered and police were scouring the area for surveillance footage.

He claimed that none of the plainclothes officers were wearing body cameras.

The two officers who fired their weapons have been placed on administrative leave while an investigation is conducted.