With victim sedated, failed kidnapping remains mystery

The unanswered questions still outnumber Clinton Harriott's wounds.

A day after the West Philly bar owner was kidnapped, stabbed, shot, held for an unmet ransom and allowed to live, investigators said they are no closer to solving the puzzling case.

Harriott, 45, remained stable but heavily sedated at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania yesterday.

"We haven't been able to interview the victim, so little light has been shed on what happened," said Lt. John Walker, of Southwest Detectives. Walker said detectives will likely interview Harriott today after he's brought out of sedation.

This much is known so far: About 3 p.m. Tuesday, police said, five masked Jamaican men barged into Club William Penn, at 57th and Ludlow streets.

They tried to rob Harriott, and ended up shooting him once in the leg when he confronted them.

The intruders shoved Harriott into a van and called his family, demanding a $450,000 ransom.

The negotiations stalled, so the masked kidnappers took Harriott into a home on Cedarhurst Street near 60th, where they stabbed him twice before fleeing, police said.

Harriott crawled through a basement window and stumbled to a neighbor's house.

"All indications were that they planned to kill him," Walker said. "We're not sure why they left."

Investigators were still looking for the white Chevy or Ford van with tinted front windows and no side or rear windows.

Walker said police found a machete, an ax and a pool of blood in the basement where Harriott was tortured.

Cops also found a significant amount of marijuana in the house, which raised the question of whether Harriott was involved with drugs.

"For some reason, [the kidnappers] believed he had a lot of money," Walker said. "Obviously, if drugs are involved, he could have had that kind of money."

Neighbors said a young Jamaican family lived in the house where Harriott was tortured, but it's still unclear what connection the kidnappers have with the property, Walker said.

Tipsters can contact police at 215-686-3183. *