A former Philadelphia police officer pleaded guilty on Friday to fatally shooting an unarmed and fleeing 12-year-old boy in 2022.

Edsaul Mendoza, 28 — who was fired after the incident — faces up to 40 years im prison when he is sentenced. He was initially charged with first- and third-degree murder, voluntary manslaughter, and possessing an instrument of crime, The New York Times reported. The plea deal covered third-degree murder and possessing an instrument of crime.

As CrimeOnline reported at the time, the incident took place on March 1, 2022, when four officers were on a surveillance detail when a bullet struck their vehicle. Two of the officers got out and chased 12-year-old Thomas Siderio and the 17-year-old boy he was with, and one of them — later identified as Mendoza — shot him in the back after he’d seen the boy discard the gun he was carrying.

Court documents say the officers, in their unmarked car, passed by Siderio and the other boy then circled back and passed them again, according to the Times. The plainclothed officers were not looking for either boy at the time. At the second pass, Siderio fired a shot at the vehicle. Mendoza took off running after Siderio, in what authorities said was a “tactically unsound foot chase,” and fired two shots at him before the fatal shot.

Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner said that Mendoza “knew the 12-year-old five-foot-tall, 111-pound Thomas Siderio no longer had a gun and no ability to harm him.”

“But he fired a shot through his back nonetheless that killed him,” he said.

Siderio’s family filed a federal lawsuit against Mendoza and the city of Philadelphia in January.

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[Featured image: Thomas Siderio/handout and Edsaul Mendoza/Philadelphia Police Department]