Skip to content
Crime & Justice
Link copied to clipboard

SEPTA cop attacked while breaking up brawl

    by Vinny Vella
    Published 

A SEPTA Transit Police officer was injured this afternoon, cold-cocked by a punk while he tried to break up a fight between a group of West Philadelphia High School students.

Just before 3:30 p.m., the officer, a 24-year veteran of the force and the department's school-liaison officer, saw a group of teenage girls get into a scuffle while on patrol near the Market-Frankford El stop at 46th and Market streets, said Andrew Busch, a SEPTA spokesperson.

When the officer went to separate the girls, a teenage boy snuck up behind him and "sucker-punched" him in the right side of his head, said Busch.

The attacker fled the scene, but SEPTA detectives tonight are following up on some promising leads, according to Transit Police Chief Thomas J. Nestel.

Nestel said the officer is being treated tonight at Temple University Hospital, and has lost hearing in his right ear as a result of his injuries.