Sen. Pat Toomey believes Edward Archer, the Yeadon man who police say shot Philadelphia police Officer Jesse Hartnett in a chilling ambush style attack, had been "radicalized."
What isn't known is by whom or what.
Sen. Bob Casey believes Archer is emblematic of a new front on the terrorism watch, the "Lone Wolf."
Both Pennsylvania's U.S. senators were in town yesterday to talk about the police shooting, and Archer's statement to police that he shot the officer in the name of Islam.
And they were here one day after FBI boss James Comey, in a stop in Pittsburgh, said his investigators were handling the incident as a terrorist attack.
What seems to be getting murky in all this is just what is considered a "terrorist attack," and its relation to "terrorism."
Comey also was in Philly yesterday, and stressed that the FBI had discovered nothing to indicate that Archer was part of any organized cell or had ties to others who still posed a threat to police, as had been alleged by a tipster.
But he did say the matter continues to be investigated as a terrorist attack.
What's interesting is how the community is reacting to these developments.
Last night state Sen. Anthony Williams, D-8, held a community meeting just a block from the shooting scene in West Philadelphia. You can read about that here.
Maybe even more important are several other reactions in the wake of the shooting.
We talk about that on our editorial page.
Don't expect this debate to be defused any time soon.
I lean toward what Casey was saying about a "Lone Wolf." I don't know if Archer was moved or radicalized, or if he was just a troubled man looking to glom onto a cause.
For some reason, that does not make what happened any less scary.
And I challenge anyone to watch the video of Archer approaching Hartnett's police cruiser to feel anything other than a chilling vision of the challenge facing America.
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