'Targeted for no reason'

SEAN PATRICK Conroy had just visited his fiancee, whom he'd asked to marry just a few days before, on Easter.

He was headed to the Starbucks at the Philadelphia Marriott Downtown, at 12th and Market streets, and to the job he loved.

He wanted to make sure that everything was OK at the shop, which he managed.

"He loved living in the city; he was never afraid," Sharon Conroy said yesterday about her only child, who lived on 10th Street near Snyder Avenue in South Philadelphia, and always took the subway to work.

Conroy's love affair with Philadelphia ended about 2:45 p.m. Wednesday when five teens crept up behind him in an underground SEPTA concourse near 13th and Market streets.

Police said the teens apparently targeted Conroy, 36, at random. They just wanted to hurt someone. They punched him in the back of the head. Conroy fell to the ground, gasping for air.

The kids beat him while he was down, leaving large bruises on his body, a police source said.

A SEPTA police officer who witnessed the attack rushed to Conroy's side and attempted to resuscitate him.

But the pummeling, or blunt force trauma, triggered an asthma attack, and Conroy lost consciousness, according to the Philadelphia Medical Examiner's Office.

Shortly after 3 p.m., he was pronounced dead at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital.

The Medical Examiner's Office labeled the death a homicide.

Family members struggled yesterday to come to terms with the attack.

"My son was the kindest person you'd ever want to meet," Sharon Conroy said. "He was so patient, so understanding.

"It doesn't make any sense."

Police charged Kinta Stanton, 16, of Smedley Street near Ruscomb, a 10th-grader at Simon Gratz High School, with murder and conspiracy. He will be charged as an adult. He was arraigned yesterday and is being held without bail.

Police are searching for four other teens. Three are Simon Gratz students; all will face murder charges, a police source said.

Robbery does not appear to have been a motive because none of Conroy's possessions was missing, said Deputy Police Commissioner Richard Ross.

"That's what makes it so horrific," Ross said. "It makes it worse because he was targeted for no reason."

Conroy was born in Philadelphia and grew up in Upper Darby, where he was a member of the Boy Scouts. After graduating from Upper Darby High School, he moved to California.

"He didn't have a job or know anyone," his mother said. "He was very adventurous."

After moving back to Philadelphia in 2001, Conroy started working at Starbucks. "He loved working at Starbucks," Conroy said. "He liked interacting with customers. He was passionate about his work."

Neighbors and friends described him as a mild-mannered, outgoing guy.

"I remember him saying, 'I just go to work and come home. Work and home,' " said Ralph Petrone, who works at Rosie's Market, 10th and McKean streets, where Conroy came almost every day. "No one had a bad word to say about him."

Conroy met his fiancee at the Starbucks in the Bellevue. The woman, whom Conroy's mother identified only by her first name, Stevi, said she was too distraught to talk yesterday.

Conroy was working as a manager at the Bellevue location then, and Stevi was a sous chef. They loved watching movies together and going ice skating at Penn's Landing, his mom said.

"After four years, they were still giggly, happy in love," Conroy said.

"She's devastated," she said about her son's fiancee.

"All their plans and dreams just went away yesterday."

Mayor Nutter said the youths should turn themselves in because "they know we're going to catch them."

"There's just no reason to be engaged in this type of activity," Nutter said.

"These young people are going to pay a pretty heavy price."

In recent months, groups of youths have been harassing passengers at subway stations.

According to SEPTA spokesman Jim Whitaker, these incidents often take place in the afternoon, after school.

"But there haven't been any significant injuries until this one," he said.

SEPTA has recently collaborated with Philadelphia police to increase patrols at subway stations between 2 and 5 p.m.

"Crime has been going down on the subways, not up," said Whitaker.

"But every once in a while, there's a spike."

Yesterday afternoon, Nutter visited the spot on the platform where Conroy was attacked and shook hands with passers-by.

"I wanted to make sure I came through here, letting people know our commitment," he said.

But he also acknowledged that, while the city is committed to public safety, the police cannot be everywhere.

City Controller Alan Butkovitz has initiated an inquiry into the circumstances surrounding Conroy's murder.

"This incident raises many questions that I believe both the family and the citizens of Philadelphia are entitled to have answered," Butkowitz wrote in a letter delivered yesterday to Joseph M. Casey, general manager of SEPTA.

"Let's find out the facts," said Sharon Conroy. "That's what my son deserves."

She would also like to see his attackers brought to justice.

"He was such a good man," she said.

"I was so proud of him.

"I can't even imagine my life without him in it." *

Staff writer David Gambacorta contributed to this report.