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Friday, January 15, 2010

Shoot-out at the Bridge

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.”
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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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