3 more teens held in fatal Center City attack

Three more Simon Gratz High School students have been picked up by police this morning in connection to last week's killing of Sean Conroy, the Starbuck's manager who was suckerpunched and repeatedly beaten in a Center City subway concourse.

The teens are in custody and officials said that they legally cannot question them until the teens, because they are minors, are represented by parents, guardians or lawyers.

None of those taken into custody have been charged, but authorities said they anticipated developments in the case later today. Detectives are still looking for at least one other person.

The day of the March 26 attack, police arrested Kinta Stanton, 16, also a student at Simon Gratz, who confessed to detectives that he and friends cut school and were hanging around Center City.

Stanton, of the 4900 block of North Smedley Street in Logan, told investigators that he and the others spontaneously attacked Conroy at the 13th and Market Street subway concourse partly because he was walking slowly in front of them.

After an initial punch in the back, Conroy fell to ground and pleaded for help as the teens kicked and punched him. During the assault, Conroy suffered a fatal asthma attack that the Medical Examiner's Office determined was caused by the initial assault.

Conroy died at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital within an hour of the attack.

Stanton was charged Thursday with murder and criminal conspiracy.

Conroy, 36, was buried yesterday after a Funeral Mass at the Church of St. Cyril in East Lansdowne.

Remembered as a quiet, generous man, Conroy grew up in Upper Darby and settled in recent years in South Philadelphia. Three days before he was killed, he had become engaged to be married.

In a year of declining crime rates, the assault came as a shock - a midday attack in the heart of Center City, a prosperous area relatively free of the violent crime more common in struggling neighborhoods.

Conroy was jumped about 2:35 p.m. A SEPTA officer witnessed part of the attack and rushed to help Conroy, including doing chest compressions until medics arrived.