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Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Surveillance footage recorded two men police are searching for in connection with a shooting on the western edge of Northern Liberties that left a man critically wounded in late November.

About 7:10 p.m. on Nov. 25, a man was sitting in his car on Fairmount Avenue near 7th Street when two men walked up to the driver’s side window.

One of the suspects shot the man in his neck, and they both fled on foot.

Surveillance footage shows the men using a key to open a gate on 7th Street that leads to the Spring Garden Homes and enter the complex.  

Police said the suspects shot the victim and ran off without taking anything from him.

The suspects are described as two black men, both in their mid 20s. One was wearing a blue vest over a red shirt and blue jeans. The other was wearing a blue hooded sweater, a white shirt and brown pants.

Tipsters are asked to call 215-686-TIPS (8477) or the Central Detective Division at 215-686-3093.


Posted by Phillip Lucas @ 9:59 PM  Permalink | 1 comment
Monday, January 30, 2012

Surveillance cameras recorded footage of a man who is wanted for an assault and robbery inside a South Philadelphia SEPTA station Sunday morning.

Police posted the footage online, and are asking for help from the public to find the suspect.

The suspect walked into a concourse leading to the Snyder Avenue subway platform around 9:15 a.m. Police said he punched a man in his face, snatched his wallet — which contained lottery tickets — and ran from the station.   

The suspect is described as a black man in his 20s, who is about 5 feet 7 inches tall, has facial hair and weighs between 170 and 180 pounds.

He was wearing a maroon and blue checkered hoody, a black North Face vest and dark blue jeans.

Tipsters are asked to call the South Detective Division at 215-686-3013, or the tip line at 215-686-TIPS (8477).


Posted by Phillip Lucas @ 5:33 PM  Permalink |
Monday, January 30, 2012
National Penn Bank robbery suspect / FBI

Cops and the FBI are looking for help to track down a man who they say robbed a Chestnut Hill bank late Monday morning and got away with an undisclosed amount of cash.

Police said the suspect gave a teller a threatening demand note around 11:30 a.m. in the National Penn Bank, at Germantown and Evergreen avenues. After getting cash, the man fled east on Evergreen Avenue toward Ardleigh Street.

Authorities described the suspect as a black man in his late 20s or early 30s, 5 feet 7 with a dark complexion. He wore a royal blue hooded sweatshirt, gray gloves, gray sweatpants and oversized brown sunglasses, and is considered armed and dangerous.

Tipsters should contact Philadelphia Police or the FBI at 215-418-4000.

Posted by Morgan Zalot @ 4:09 PM  Permalink | 3 comments
Monday, January 30, 2012
Brian Goldman photo from The Daily Pennsylvanian

The passenger of a taxi who was attacked at random by a group of teens in Center City this weekend has apparently come forward, writing about his experience today in The Daily Pennsylvanian.

Brian Goldman, a senior at Penn who says he was the passenger in the cab Saturday night, says he was punched through the open window of the cab, seemingly without provocation, and that there were as many as 15 teens in the offending group.

Police said yesterday that a cabbie and his passenger were attacked by a group of three teens at 15th and Chestnut streets around 8:30 p.m. Saturday in Center City. During the attack, according to police, three black teens — two 17-year-olds and a 15-year-old — shouted racial slurs at the white passenger.

The passenger ran off at some point and the cabbie was able to scare the teens away with a tire iron, police said. Luckily, officers were able to catch the three teens and have charged them as juveniles with aggravated assault and related offenses.

Since the passenger ran off, police were not able to confirm today that Goldman was the passenger, and Goldman has not immediately responded to an email.

Meanwhile, when I arrived to work today, my email inbox was filled with people who wanted to know if these three black teens would be charged with a hate crime. This is not the first crime I’ve written about where people have asked that and while I’m no longer shocked at some of the language used in these emails, it still saddens me beyond belief.

I called police this morning to ask if there were any updates in the case and to see if the teens would be charged with a hate crime. Because the passenger hadn’t been identified, police said they could not charge the teens with a hate crime or with any crime against that passenger. They charged the kids with assaulting the driver.

Not once does Goldman mention race in his column. His ire is directed not toward the young offenders or their skin color but to the dozens of bystanders who witnessed the attack and did nothing.

“People got out of their cars to watch. The Wendy’s right across the street from us was filled with spectators eager to catch the bloody battle,” he wrote. “When I realized we were not going to receive help from the passersby, I did the only thing that seemed reasonable. I heeded the Forrest Gump adage and ran — towards 16th Street.”

I called police back and told them that a victim had come forward. A spokeswoman asked me to pass the information along and said that detectives will have to reach out to Goldman and get his version of events to see if stronger charges are now warranted.

It’s not clear from Goldman’s piece why he never called the cops or why he ran away from the cabbie that came to his aid, but I hope to ask him those questions if and when he returns my request to speak with him today.

Posted by Stephanie Farr @ 12:04 PM  Permalink |
Sunday, January 29, 2012

This post has been updated.

A a 34-year-old woman and her 13-year-old daughter were injured in a double shooting in the city’s Nicetown section Sunday night, police said.

The two were shot just after 7:30 p.m. inside a house on Rowan Street near Germantown Avenue. Police said the teen was hit twice in the right leg and the woman was hit twice in the back. Both were taken to Temple University Hospital, where the woman was listed in critical condition and the teen was listed in stable.

Police said the shooting was committed by a known suspect, but no arrest had been made Sunday night.

Posted by Morgan Zalot @ 8:17 PM  Permalink | 10 comments
Sunday, January 29, 2012

Robbers forced a supervisor at the Center City Greyhound terminal to page other employees to her location this morning so they could all be put into a caged area together while the bandits swipped $21,500 from the business, according to police.

Around 2:50 a.m., the 42-year-old supervisor at the Greyhound terminal at Filbert and 10th streets was approached by three armed men who were wearing all black clothing with masks and gloves, police said. The men ordered her in to a caged-in area and forced her to page other employees to come to her location, according to police.

Three employees did respond - a 19-year-old man, a 22-year-old woman and a 64-year-old man - and were placed into the caged-in area with the supervisor. The supervisor was then taken at gunpoint by one of the offenders and ordered to open a safe, police said.

The robber took $3,000 from the safe and before the three fled, they also took about $18,500 from the counter area, according to police.

The men fled out of a break room door and were last seen heading east on Arch Street.

No injuries were reported and the suspects remain unidentified.

Posted by Stephanie Farr @ 1:36 PM  Permalink | 17 comments
Sunday, January 29, 2012

In a horrific assault in Center City Saturday night, three teenagers who were spouting off racial slurs pulled a man out of a cab to beat him and when the cab driver intervened to stop the assault, the teens turned their rage on him, according to police.

Around 8:23 p.m., a Liberty Taxi cab was stopped at a red light at 15th and Chestnut streets when two 17-year-old boys and a 15-year-old boy approached the cab and started calling the male passenger in the back seat racially derogatory names, police said.

The boys then threw an unknown liquid at the cab before they opened the door and pulled the passenger out and started pummeling him, according to police.

When the cabbie got out of the car to see what was going on, the passenger ran away and the teens turned on the cabbie. They punched him in the face, kicked him and threw an unknown liquid on him, police said.

Despite being outnumbered, the cabbie was able to grab a tire iron from his trunk at which time the teens ran away. The taxi driver was able to flag down a nearby officer and all three boys were arrested and charged as juveniles with aggravated assault and related offenses.

The cab driver suffered an injury to his right eye and had stomach and side pain, police said. The passenger remains unidentified.

Police said the three teens were black and the cabbie and passenger were white. Police did not immediately know if the teens would or could face hate crime charges.

Posted by Stephanie Farr @ 1:13 PM  Permalink |
Friday, January 27, 2012

This post has been updated

Two men are in critical condition following a shooting on Gratz Street near Susquehanna Avenue in North Philadelphia Friday night, police said.

Shots rang out around 5:50 p.m., leaving a 22-year-old man wounded once in his back and another 22-year-old man wounded in his face, right shouter and abdomen.

Both victims were taken to Temple University Hospital and were in surgery as of 6:40 p.m., said Officer Christine O’Brien, a police department spokeswoman.

Police were unsure of the shooter's motive, but said the incident may have stemmed from an argument that broke out during a dice game on the corner.

Police found dice, cash, shell casings and blood on the scene and several surveillance cameras recorded the incident, Chief Inspector Scott Small said.

A solid description of the suspect was not immediately available, but police took a witness to the Central Detective Division for questioning.

No arrests were made.

Posted by Phillip Lucas @ 6:56 PM  Permalink | 13 comments
Friday, January 27, 2012

Jorge Aldea, who was wanted for the Nov. 25 murder of Louis Chevere in North Philadelphia, was arrested Friday evening in Bronx, New York, police said.  

Rosemary Fernandez Rivera, 33, who reportedly spoke to police as a witness in Chevere’s murder, died Monday night after being shot four times at point blank range while she was working at the Caribe Mini Market on Mutter Street near Westmoreland in North Philadelphia.

Police said the woman was likely targeted, because the shooter walked into the store and opened fire without turning his attention to two other employees, or taking any cash or merchandise.

Agents in the FBI’s New York City field office confirmed that Aldea, 23, was arrested without incident. However, details on the man’s connection to New York City were not immediately available.

Posted by Phillip Lucas @ 6:47 PM  Permalink | 16 comments
Friday, January 27, 2012

Kevin Drinks was at work unloading furniture from a truck in North Philadelphia when he was shot dead on Dec. 10 around 6:30 p.m. on Girard Avenue near Watts Street.

Drinks, 50, had only been on the job for about a week, according to State Rep. W. Curtis Johnson, who called for the police department to ramp up its community policing efforts to deal with violent crime.

“Community policing requires beat cops on foot, bike patrols and ministations and electronic surveillance in high crime areas – all parts of a good community policing strategy that we need to get crime under control,” he said.

However, police districts are already split into Public Service Areas — which are specific areas within each police district that officers work in to build relationships with neighbors.  

Drinks’s family, Thomas and the Citizens Crime Commission are offering a $2,500 reward for information leading to the suspects in his murder.

Thomas called on businesses near the scene of the shooting to donate money to add to the reward being offered.  

“We are all in this together and eradicating crime and violence in the city will take a joint effort,” Thomas said.   

Tipsters are asked to call the Citizens Crime Commission at (215) 546-6532.

Posted by Phillip Lucas @ 6:08 PM  Permalink | Post a comment
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About The PhillyConfidential team

Dana DiFilippo has covered murder, mayhem and miscellany at the Daily News since 2000. She grew up in Delaware County and studied journalism and photography at Penn State University. E-mail tips to difilid@phillynews.com.

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Stephanie Farr has been reporting for the Daily News since 2007, covering everything from gay porn stars who entered the burglary business to moon trees, skinheads, murders and naked bike rides. She covers crime, both in the city and suburbs, and keeps clippings of bizarre Associated Press articles. Her favorite this year was the story about the drunk in Punxsutawney who gave mouth-to-mouth resuscitation to a dead opossum. E-mail tips to farrs@phillynews.com.

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Phillip Lucas joined the Daily News crime team in 2011. He grew up on the mean streets of Seattle and studied journalism and psychology at Howard University in Washington, D.C. Before landing in the City of Brotherly Love, Phillip was a reporter for The News Journal in Wilmington, Del. Email tips to lucasp@phillynews.com.

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Morgan Zalot is the newest crime reporter at the Daily News, starting in 2011 after interning at the paper twice as a Temple University journalism student. In her past stints at the DN, she covered just about everything, from drunken Phillies fans to a barber shop in a high school to a grisly murder-suicide. She’s a born-and-raised Philly girl who grew up in the Northeast. E-mail tips to zalotm@philly.com.

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