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Wednesday, January 28, 2009

More Marvin: shooting victim Dixon due in court
Another chapter will be added today to the maddening urban whodunit tale, “Who shot Dwight Dixon?”
Dixon, who contends he was shot in the hand in North Philadelphia last April 29 by National Football League star Marvin Harrison, will be in municipal court to face charges that he lied to police when he first spoke about the incident.
Earlier this month, District Attorney Lynne Abraham announced she would not file criminal charges against Harrison because she couldn’t vouch for the credibility of statements made by Harrison, Dixon and three other witnesses.
In an interview yesterday with the Daily News, Dixon and his two attorneys tried to set the record straight about his initial statement to police, and all three said they believed that Harrison, a wide receiver for the Indianapolis Colts, had gotten a break because of his celebrity status.
“I didn’t run down the street with two guns shooting at people,” said Dixon, 33.
“I’m getting prosecuted for lying, but he [Harrison] is not getting prosecuted for what he did. Where’s the justice in that?”
Dixon agreed that the tension between him and Harrison, 36, had started two weeks before the shooting when they had a dispute at Harrison’s bar, Playmakers, at 28th and Cambridge streets.
The two locked horns again on April 29 in front of a hot-dog stand, down the street from a garage Harrison owns on Thompson Street near 25th.
“He swung at me, hit me across the shoulder,” Dixon said. “Next thing I know it was three-on-one. I was fighting Marvin and two other guys.”
When the fistfight ended, Dixon said, Harrison pulled out two handguns. “I said, ‘Oh, so now you a gangster?’ Then he started shooting.”
Dixon said Harrison chased after his truck and started blasting away. “I thought I was going to die. Bullets were flying all over,” he said.
Harrison’s agent, Tom Condon, did not return calls from the Daily News.
Defense attorney Joseph Santaguida said Dixon had called him from Lakenau Hospital. He advised Dixon against making any statement.
After being held by police for several days, Dixon told investigators that he had been shot in West Philadelphia by two robbers.
“I made that up because I was scared for my life and for my family. I was worried. He [Harrison] is well-connected, he has money and he has fame,” Dixon said.
Several weeks later, Dixon told members of the District Attorney’s office that Harrison shot him, Santaguida said.
Harrison, meanwhile, told police he fought with Dixon on the day of the shooting but claimed he had heard shots being fired after Dixon left.
Harrison also told police that his Belgian-made handgun was in his suburban home the day of the shooting, and claimed he had never fired the weapon.
But detectives found the gun in Harrison’s North Philadelphia garage a day after the shooting, and crime-scene investigators recovered at least five slugs at the crime scene that were later proved to have been fired from Harrison’s unique gun.
“You’d be foolish not to think that he [Harrison] wasn’t being given a break because of his status,” Santaguida said.
Cathie Abookire, Abraham’s spokeswoman, said that “every case is evaluated according to the facts and evidence and our ability to prove the case in court.”
In October, Dixon and attorney Robert Gamburg announced they were filing a civil lawsuit against Harrison. But little was said about the status of the criminal investigation.
Santaguida and Gamburg said they were stunned by Abraham’s decision to not file charges against Harrison while still pursuing Dixon.
Santaguida said: “When did he become the bad guy?”
Posted by David Gambacorta @ 12:09 AM  Permalink | 1 comment
Comments   
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 6:42 PM, 01/28/2009
    It's amazing that even though slugs were recovered from Harrison's gun at what seems to be a crime scene, he is still fawned over because he isn't a "flashy" wide receiver.
    — david


1 comments
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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