Alleged hit-run driver's a hatchet man, too

Dozens of neighborhood children were dancing in the narrow North Philadelphia street at his 7-year-old daughter Jahimya's birthday block party on Saturday afternoon when a black Volvo suddenly came speeding toward them, Jerome Conquest told the Daily News yesterday.

The car took the front end off a parked car being used to block off North Myrtlewood Street near Huntingdon, crashed through food tables and a moon bounce, then plowed into the dancers, running over Conquest's 8-year-old nephew, Andre Clark.

"Andre has head trauma and lots of broken ribs," said Conquest's sister, Sonya.

Although Andre was still listed in critical condition yesterday, Conquest said: "The doctors tell us he's going to make it. He's sitting up and speaking. But he's in a lot of pain."

Another of Conquest's nephews, Jhalio Archer, 9, and a niece, Carmel White, 2, suffered nonlife-threatening injuries.

Conquest said he was sitting by his open front window, deejaying the dance, when the hit-and-run driver - identified by police as Alton Parker, 54, of Lehigh Avenue near 28th Street - hit the children.

Conquest ran out of his house and joined dozens of neighbors chasing the car on foot as it careened around the corner and sped down Oakdale Street.

That's when fate intervened. Conquest saw a man sitting in a truck, jumped in and shouted, "Please chase that guy! He just hit a bunch of kids on our block!"

Conquest didn't know that the truck driver was an off-duty cop. He also didn't know that up ahead, Parker was driving with one hand, and gripping a hatchet in the other.

When Parker crashed the Volvo on West Sergeant Street near 26th, Conquest said: "I jumped out of the truck, ran over and hit him. I reached for his keys to turn the car off. That's when I saw the ax in his right hand. He took a swing at me - and missed.

"I wasn't afraid. All I could think about was how he had left my little nephew laying in the street. I hit him again."

The truck driver blocked Parker's car, pulled out a gun and a badge - and it was over.

Police, who did not release the officer's name yesterday, said Parker is charged with multiple counts of aggravated assault while DUI and recklessly endangering another person.

Twanna Jardine, who was enjoying the block party when Parker came tearing up the street, said she recognized the hit-and-run driver as "TV Al," who has a storefront television-repair business on Lehigh Avenue near 28th Street.

"He had a hatchet in one hand and was driving with a deranged look on his face, like he wasn't seeing nothing, like he was somewhere else," Jardine said. "People were running alongside the car, banging on his windows, shouting, 'What are you doing? Stop!' He just looked straight ahead like, 'I'm not stopping for nobody.' "