Wounded cop runs after suspect - and nabs him

Officer Mark Uffelman finished the 2008 Broad Street Run in 65 minutes.

Yesterday, after taking a bullet to the arm, he took off after the man who allegedly shot him. Uffelman, 52, ran him down in about a minute.

Homicide Capt. James Clark said of Uffelman and his partner, David McAndrews, 35: "Out-and-out heroes, both of them."

Uffelman and McAndrews, both Third District officers and partners for about three years, were on duty in plainclothes yesterday morning when they observed a robbery on 8th Street near Fitzwater, police said.

They had been detailed to the area as part of a homicide task force to aid investigators in developing leads in the June 15 murder of 23-year-old Beau Zabel.

Zabel, an aspiring teacher, was shot in a robbery early in the morning while walking home from his job at a South Street Starbucks.

His killer has not been caught.

"They had guns pointed at his head and his body at one time," McAndrews said, of the robbery which he and his partner had observed yesterday.

"They exited the car, identified themselves as police officers and the two males fled," said Lt. Frank Vanore, a police spokesman.

Uffelman, who holds the record for the fastest mile at the Police Academy, chased one of the men while his partner chased the other.

When Uffelman neared Mildred Street near Catharine, the man he was pursuing - identified by police as Rakin Thabit, 42, of Camden - turned toward him with a revolver and fired four to five times, striking Uffelman in his left arm, Vanore said.

Neither officer fired a weapon.

"As I was passing the shooter, he blatantly turned back around and started firing in Mark's direction, and at the same time that I'm passing him in the car to cut him off, I just see muzzle flashes and continuous shots," McAndrews said. "It was a very scary situation."

Despite his wound, Uffelman, a 29-year veteran, kept running until he had cornered Thabit.

"I felt like I was able to continue and make the arrest, so I was going to finish the job and wrap it up," Uffelman said. "He definitely wasn't going to get away."

Uffelman was treated at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital and later released.

McAndrews arrested Thabit's alleged accomplice, identified by police as Jonathan Massa, 22, also of Camden.

Both men face charges of attempted murder, aggravated assault, robbery and related offenses. Both have criminal records, authorities said.

Thabit served 15 years for offenses including robbery, kidnapping, and aggravated sexual assault, according to the New Jersey Department of Corrections.

Massa has been in and out of jail since 2005 for weapons and drug offenses, the department's Web site says.

Both weapons used in yesterday's shooting, a revolver and a semi-automatic, were recovered, Vanore said.

Uffelman is the son of slain police officer Charles Uffelman, who was carjacked, robbed, and beaten to death, while off-duty and driving home along Columbus Boulevard in 1978.

The man charged with the elder Uffelman's death was acquitted of that crime, but recently was arrested in connection with a triple murder in North Carolina and is suspected in two additional deaths, authorities said.

Uffelman wears his father's badge, No. 3677, while on patrol.

Yesterday, in the Bella Vista neighborhood where the dangerous police chase had unfolded just hours earlier, neighbors lamented about the recent criminal activity near their homes.

Canio Pascale, owner of Ristorante Mezza Luna, on 8th Street near Catharine, worried about the effect of the violence on his business.

"People who hear about the shooting might think twice about coming back around here, and that definitely can have a serious effect on business," he said.