Cops: Drexel student attacked over pot stash

A Drexel University student received a crash course in aggressive business mergers from a pair of gun-toting thugs in University City on Tuesday.

The trouble started about 2 p.m., when two men barged into a rental property at 40th and Ludlow streets and found Kevin Ulrich in his second-floor bedroom, police said.

They forced Ulrich, 22, to the floor and barked “Where is it? Where is it?” said Lt. John Walker of Southwest Detectives.

The “it” in question, Walker said, was $27,000 in cash and seven pounds of marijuana that Ulrich had stashed in a Drexel lacrosse bag in his room.

But the Drexel University senior didn’t answer his interrogators, who pistol-whipped him several times, opening three deep gashes on his head.

“While they were striking him, one of the guns went off,” Walker said. “The bullet went into his closet.”

A roommate of Ulrich’s walked in on the drama and was handcuffed by the assailants.  He somehow managed to escape, and the would-be thieves, described as 6-feet-tall black males in their 20s,gave chase.

When they couldn’t catch up to the roommate, they decided to flee, Walker said.

Ulrich, of Ambler, Pa., needed several staples to close the lacerations on his head. He now faces drug possession charges, Walker said.

“He most likely was dealing to the student population in the area,” Walker said, adding the marjiuana was stamped with the words “White Rhino” and had been imported from California.

“These guys probably felt he was cutting in on their business, and they went after him pretty aggressively.”