It was a month ago today that Terry Bowen finally got a phone call about her son’s case.
She was excited — until she heard the news.
Bowen learned from a Daily News reporter that Lynne Abraham, in one of her last acts as district attorney, had decided not to press charges against Chauncey Ellison, the off-duty Philadelphia police sergeant who shot Bowen’s unarmed son, Lawrence Allen, in the back on Nov. 17, 2008.
Allen, 20, was left paralyzed from the shooting. He died last Feb. 15, after battling numerous infections and dropping more than half his body weight.
Bowen was infuriated by Abraham’s decision, but took heart when Police Commissioner Charles H. Ramsey vowed that day to decide within two weeks if he would discipline Ellison for possible departmental violations.
The two weeks came and went without any action being taken.
“It’s really starting to irk me,” Bowen said earlier this week, as her normally soft-spoken voice suddenly rose.
“They’re not doing anything, and we don’t get any explanations,” she said. “We still don’t know why they didn’t charge [Ellison] in the first place.”
Commissioner Ramsey could not be reached for comment.
When reached by phone on Wednesday, Abraham declined to discuss the Ellison case, and defended not publicly explaining her decision to not criminally charge the veteran cop.
“First of all, whatever I said and did, those are decisions that I made when I was district attorney, and I think it’s inappropriate to comment about those cases,” she said.
“There were a lot of shooting cases in the office which we handled without making an announcement. In some cases I did, but in [Ellison] I didn’t.”
Abraham held a news conference in December to announce that she wanted a grand jury to determine if charges should be pressed against Frank Tepper, an off-duty cop who fatally shot unarmed William “Billy” Panas Jr. during a neighborhood melee on Nov. 21.
Tepper was fired by Ramsey on Jan. 4. Panas’ family plans to rally at City Hall about noon today to call for Tepper’s arrest. D.A. Seth Williams is actively reviewing the Tepper and Ellison cases, a spokeswoman said.
“The Panas case had such a tremendous amount of public attention, I thought it was important to talk about [the decision],” Abraham said.
When a reporter noted that the Tepper and Ellison cases shared some glaring similarities — both involved unarmed men who were shot by off-duty cops during personal confrontations that were witnessed by many residents — Abraham demurred.
“Every case stands or falls on its own unique facts and circumstances,” she said.
“You can’t make a decision because one case appears similar to another. Every case should be considered individually...that’s the rule I always followed.”
Bowen said that she’ll meet next week with members of  Rev. Al Sharpton’s National Action Network.
She said that members of the civil-rights group will help her plan a rally for her son later this month, perhaps on or near the first anniversary of his death.
“We need all the help we can get,” said Allen’s father, Lawrence Allen.
“We don’t want anything crazy. We don’t anyone to get hurt. We just want justice.”
Numerous witnesses previously told the Daily News that Ellison was enraged on Nov. 17, 2008 as he searched for a man who’d robbed and punched his 14-year-old son.
He chased a suspect to Renovo Street near 20th, in West Oak Lane, where he saw Allen, who lived on the block, and a number of Allen’s friends and relatives. The two exchanged words.
Witnesses said that another off-duty cop, Robin Fortune, loudly encouraged Ellison to take action against Allen until Ellison shot the father of three in the back.
“There were so many people who were there — women, old ladies, young kids — saw what happened,” Allen’s father said.
“How could you say it’s not murder? My son suffered like a wounded animal until he died.”
Allen said that he called Abraham’s office numerous times after the shooting to see if the case was being worked on, hoping someone in the office would have remembered his aunt, Francis Walker, who once worked on one of Abraham’s re-election campaigns.
“When my aunt retired about 10 years ago, Abraham came to her party,” Allen said.
“Funny thing is, she met my son, shook his hand. But still she didn’t give a damn.”

Agee Stanton was quietly munching on some cookies when the police marched into his mother’s Wynnefield home on Sunday.

His appetite hadn’t been affected by the severe beating he had just inflicted on his 87-year-old mother, cops said.

Stanton’s mother, Susan, wasn’t eating any cookies. 

She was suffering from a broken nose, and an awful gash on the side of her face that required 100 stitches to close — the price she paid for telling her son to stop smoking marijuana, said Lt. John Walker of Southwest Detectives. 

Walker said Stanton, 54, had punched his mother twice in the face inside their home on Arlington Street near 52nd about 4:30 p.m., after they argued over his drug use.

While it was unclear who called 9-1-1, Stanton made no attempt to flee.

He was charged with aggravated assault and related offenses. He was being held yesterday on $25,000 bail.

Susan Stanton was listed in stable condition at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, Walker said.
“It’s a pretty bizarre incident,” he added.

“You have a son who is being provided shelter by his mother, and being told right from wrong at the age of 54, and he goes and brutally assaults a defenseless woman.”

In a move that will likely surprise no one, the family of the late Latino musician Joaquin Rivera is preparing to sue Aria Health System.
“We are now on the cusp of filing a civil lawsuit,” Tom Kline, the family’s attorney, said last night.
Rivera’s family was emboldened by a report that was released Thursday by the state Department of Health detailing numerous staff policy violations that occurred on Nov. 28, the night Rivera had a fatal heart attack in the waiting room of Aria Health’s Frankford campus.
Rivera, 63, sat dead for more than 40 minutes and was robbed by three vagrants before hospital personnel noticed.
The list of hospital errors that took place before, during and after his death was extensive, state investigators found.
While Rivera’s friends and relatives had already assumed as much, having their suspicions confirmed in the stark report reopened old wounds.
“Reading about it this morning, it was emotional,” Rivera’s longtime friend Joe Garcia, president of the Pennsylvania chapter of the National Congress for Puerto Rican Rights, said yesterday.
“Joaquin’s friends all over the country were in communication about it. We’re in pain. We’re still mourning.”
Rivera, a father of three who worked for years as a guidance counselor at Olney High School, complained of pain on his left side when he entered the hospital, on Frankford Avenue near Harrison Street, at 10:45 p.m.
Surveillance footage showed that he stopped moving 11 minutes later. According to the state report, a triage nurse called his name at 11:03 p.m. and noticed that he was staring at a wall and not moving.
However, neither the nurse nor other hospital personnel checked to see if Rivera was in need of help, the report shows.
The triage nurse didn’t set foot inside the waiting room between 10:45 p.m. and 11:47 p.m., the report shows, and staffers responded to Rivera only when another patient said that he had died.
Aria suspended a triage nurse and registrar who offered conflicting accounts of the night.
State investigators learned in subsequent interviews with the hospital staff that many were unaware of protocol that requires them to check on patients in the waiting area.

The state blamed Aria administrators for not properly informing the nursing staff of the hospital’s policies.
City Councilwoman Maria Quinones-Sanchez, a close friend of Rivera’s, said the state’s findings left her disappointed with Aria administrators, whom she said had previously been “somewhat forthcoming” about what transpired.
“They were putting a lot of responsibility on the frontline staff without making sure they have proper training,” she said.
Sanchez noted that City Council will hold a hearing on the case on Feb. 2. The focus will include a “broader discussion” about practices and policies in other city emergency departments, she said.
In an e-mailed statement, Aria Health officials noted that the hospital has increased security at Frankford by more than 30 percent.
The hospital has examined its emergency triage service and emphasized better communication between its registrars and triage nurses, the statement said.
“There’s no good spin that Aria can put on the events that happened the night Joaquin Rivera died,” Kline said. “We intend to hold Aria accountable.”

A man was shot and critically wounded by Philadelphia police in Olney tonight after he aimed a gun at officers during a chase, authorities said.
The incident began about 7:30 p.m., when a 35th District officer stopped two men on Grange Avenue near Front Street.
The cop believed the men fit the description of two robbers who struck in the area on Tuesday, police said.
One of the men pulled out a handgun, prompting the officer to fire once, said police spokesman Lt. Frank Vanore.
The suspect was not wounded, and darted down nearby Hope Street, where he aimed his weapon at a sergeant and an officer who were called to the scene for backup, Vanore said.
All three cops then opened fire, Vanore said. The man, whose name was not released, was wounded twice in the neck and once in the ankle, and admitted to Albert Einstein Medical Center in critical condition.
The wounded man’s cohort was taken into custody, Vanore said. None of the officers were injured.
 

A tip from a Daily News reader led U.S. Marshals to the hideout of local fugitive Richard McLaughlin on Tuesday. Jim Burke, a spokesman for the Marshals' Philadelphia office, said investigators found McLaughlin, 35, cowering in a basement crawl space inside his home on Albanus Street near 4th.

McLaughlin was wanted for the alleged rape of an 18-year-old girl in Northeast Philadelphia last May. Burke said the tipster responded after seeing a photo of McLaughlin that appeared in the Jan. 4 issue of the People Paper.

Forget the big screens — the real action at the Bridge movie theater tonight was in the busy lobby, where an off-duty Harrisburg cop traded gunfire with a masked robber, police said.
The frightening tale began to unfold in University City shortly before 7 p.m., when about a dozen people were waiting in line to buy tickets for “Sherlock Holmes” and “The Book of Eli.”
In marched the thief, a 5-foot-8 black man in a dark hooded sweatshirt, who hid the lower half of his face behind a mask, police said.
The crook pulled out a handgun and robbed Bridge employees who were manning the box office, said Philadelphia police Chief Inspector Scott Small.
Within seconds, an off-duty state Capitol policeman yelled out, “Freeze! Police!” a police source said.
The startled robber, who was about 10 feet from the cop, opened fire, wounding the officer once in the left shoulder.
Small said the officer returned fire, but it was unclear if he wounded the masked gunman, who fled on foot.
A 20-year-old bystander who had been waiting in line for tickets was also shot. Small said that man, whose name was not released, was wounded once in the left leg.
Small said both the 42-year-old cop and the bystander were listed in stable condition at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania.
About an hour after the shoot-out, Crime Scene Unit investigators examined blood stains outside the Bridge, on Walnut Street near 40th.
Small said lab tests would determine if the blood belonged to the masked robber.
All six of the Bridge’s theatres were playing movies and packed with patrons when the shooting occurred, Small noted.
A handful of people who emerged from the theater afterward appeared dazed from the ordeal.
“There were a lot of bullets in the lobby,” said Emma Kosowsky, who was inside the Bridge when shots rang out.
“It was surreal. I didn’t realize what was happening.”
Claire Coots said she was in a small media room adjacent to the lobby, watching previews with about eight others, “When all of a sudden I heard shouting. I looked out and saw the spark of the gun.”
Coots said she dived under some nearby seats for protection.
“I always go there. Now I’ll have to find another movie theater to go to,” she said.
At the Whole Foods grocery store across the street from the Bridge, Katherine Martin sold boxes of Girl Scouts cookies on a small table. She said she was unfazed by the shooting, but noted that many University of Pennsylvania students “seemed really upset. Especially the ones who don’t live in the city.”

Just when you thought you'd never see the words "Marvin Harrison" and "shooting" in the same sentence again ...

The Inquirer linked earlier today to an exhaustive article in the new issue of GQ that retells the 2008 North Philly shooting that was linked to Harrison, the once-great Indianapolis Colts wide receiver.

As someone who covered that case extensively, I can't say there's much in the way of new information. The author of the GQ article, Jason Fagone, tells the story well, albeit mainly from the view of Robert Nixon, the second man who claimed he was wounded by Harrison in 2008.

I made a few calls tonight, for the hell of it, and found that there are two new developments in the old case, although neither is earth-shattering:

The FBI is working with Philadelphia homicide detectives to review a 2008 shooting that was linked to former NFL star Marvin Harrison, authorities said tonight.
The case seemed to have reached a controversial end point last January, when then-District Attorney Lynne Abraham declined to press charges against Harrison, who was accused of wounding two local men, Dwight Dixon and Robert Nixon.
Dixon claimed Harrison shot him in the hand after the two tussled near a North Philadelphia garage Harrison owned on April 29, 2008.
Nixon claimed he was wounded in the back by a stray bullet that was fired from Harrison’s gun. Both men filed civil lawsuits against Harrison, the once-prolific Indianapolis Colts wide receiver.
Ballistics evidence proved shell casings at the crime scene had been fired by Harrison’s Belgian-made firearm. Still, Abraham declined to press charges, citing numerous conflicting and contradictory statements made by Harrison, Dixon and Nixon.
Dixon was riddled with gunfire on July 21 in Fairmount, two blocks away from Harrison’s bar, Playmakers. He died Sept. 4; the case is unsolved.
Special Agent J.J. Klaver, an FBI spokesman, said agents are reviewing the 2008 case with police. Detectives were told several weeks ago to prepare the original case files to be reviewed by new District Attorney Seth Williams, a source said.

So there you have it. The wild card here is Williams, who would send shockwaves through the city -- and certainly the sports world -- if he decided to take his chances in court and criminally charge Harrison, something Abraham was unwilling to do.

Tomorrow, she will go on the offensive in her quest for justice for her son, Lawrence Allen, who was unarmed when he was gunned down more than a year ago by an off-duty Philadelphia police sergeant.

Bowen, members of the Rev. Al Sharpton’s National Action Network, and about 100 others will gather at 11 a.m. outside the 22nd District’s headquarters, at 17th Street and Montgomery Avenue, to protest former District Attorney Lynne Abraham’s decision not to file criminal charges against the cop, Chauncey Ellison. 

Ellison used to work in the 22nd District. He’s been on desk duty since he allegedly shot Allen in the back in West Oak Lane on Nov. 17, 2008, following a dispute.

Allen, a 20-year-old father of three, was left paralyzed from the chest down. He died three months later, after battling numerous infections and dropping more than half of his body weight.

The Daily News learned last Tuesday that Abraham, in one of her last actions as district attorney, sent a note to Police Commissioner Charles H. Ramsey, saying that she declined to criminally charge Ellison. 

“My faith is actually shot, to be honest with you. It’s like, I trust no one,” Bowen said.

"I feel like the case was pushed under the rug, and that if we don’t do anything, the stuff that happened to me will happen to other people.”
Numerous witnesses said Ellison was enraged on the night of the shooting as he searched for a man who had robbed and punched his 14-year-old son. 

He chased a suspect to Renovo Street near 20th, where he enountered Allen, who lived on the block, and a number of Allen’s friends and relatives. The two exchanged words. 

Witnesses said another off-duty cop, Robin Fortune, loudly encouraged Ellison to take action against Allen.

Ramsey promised to decide soon if he will take displinary actions against Ellison. District Attorney Seth Williams also pledged to review the case. 

Greg Brinkley, the president of the Philadelphia chapter of the National Action Network, said the civil rights group is troubled by the fact that local law enforcment officials reacted quickly to a similar incident involving an off-duty cop who fatally shot an unarmed man, while Ellison’s case languished.

Officer Frank Tepper was fired Jan. 4, less than two months after he gunned down William “Billy” Panas Jr. during a melee in Port Richmond that involved Tepper’s relatives. Abraham gave the case to a grand jury.

Tepper and Panas are white; Ellison and Allen are black.

“We’re not surprised at the actions of Lynne Abraham, who has always devalued African-American lives by virtue of all of the uncharged, unresolved police shooting cases,” Brinkley said.

"This man [Allen] got shot in the back. You had witnesses. How do you justify not pressing charges?”

Call it fate, luck or a happy coincidence, but Officer Harvey “Skip” Davis” has a habit of being in the right place at the right time. 

After an unsuccessful pursuit of a speeding motorist in Logan earlier today, Davis was riding down Marshall Street near Louden at the exact moment a shrieking, partially dressed rape victim was chasing after her alleged attacker, police said.

“She was hollering to me that she had just been robbed and raped, and that the guy had her cell phone,” Davis said. 

“He was right at the side of my car. I yelled, 'Stop!’ but he took off.” The veteran Traffic Unit cop gave chase, first in his cruiser, then on foot. Davis said the suspect, a young black man in a three-quarter length jacket and gray sweater, darted across nearby Rockland Street, then down an alley, where he jumped over a large wall and ended up trapped.

Police arrived soon after and used a ladder to scale the wall to find the alleged attacker, identified as George Alexander Green, 19, hanging from the axle underneath a truck, police said. 

Investigators from the police Special Victims Unit said Green had forced his way into the 23-year-old woman’s house on Marshall Street about 1 p.m., put a handgun to her head and raped her on a couch. 

Green demanded money and fired one shot into the floor, almost striking the woman’s 2-year-old son, investigators said. He then forced his victim and her child into a rear yard, stole her cash and cell phone and took off. 

Police said Green had the woman’s cell phone when he was arrested. He also had a box of Remington .25-caliber ammunition that was missing eight rounds, police said. No gun was found. 

Davis, who last May helped apprehend four robbers after they attacked a woman at gunpoint near his Oak Lane home, said he was happy to again be able to come to the aid of a terrified crime victim. “We say in this line of work, when you’re not looking, that’s when you run across something,” Davis said. “I guess I was just lucky.”