Another senseless subway attack

BY Tyesha Tazwell's count, there were a dozen of them - six girls, six boys - hanging around together.

One of the girls tried to get Tazwell's attention by uttering a polite-sounding "Excuse me." Then they pounced.

Tazwell, 24, said it took only a few seconds for the teens to knock her to the ground. They pounded her face with a barrage of kicks and punches, stole her purse and chanted "Watch your mouth! Watch your mouth!" when she finally got to her feet and tried to get help.

It might sound like Tazwell received this brutal beating in some far-away land where savages have inherited the earth.

But police said she was attacked near an underground concourse between SEPTA's underground lines and the Gallery mall at 8th and Market streets Wednesday night - exactly one week after Starbucks manager Sean Patrick Conroy died after being beaten by six teens on a SEPTA concourse just five blocks away.

"They were children," Tazwell said last night. "I don't know them. I've never seen them, but they committed this act of violence. It doesn't make any sense."

Tazwell said she got off a bus at 13th and Market streets at about 8 p.m. Wednesday and went underground to catch a train home.

Police said she encountered the 12 youths on the walkway between the Gallery and a SEPTA platform.

"Before I could get to the train, they approached me," Tazwell said, adding that she paused when a young girl said, "Excuse me."

"I thought I dropped something at first. But when I saw that there was so many of them, I thought, 'I'm not going to get in the midst of this.' "

Police said one of the boys kicked Tazwell in the back, knocking her to the ground.

"My face hit the ground, knocking a tooth out. I had my hair pulled from the back, and I was punched and kicked in the face," Tazwell said. "They stole all of my belongings."

Investigators said a T-shirt vendor - who had just sold the teens several shirts with the phrase "Watch your mouth," emblazoned on them - helped Tazwell to her feet. Detectives said they believe that the phrase is a lyric from a hip-hop song.

Police said Tazwell made her way to the nearby Broad Street Subway stop and told a SEPTA cashier about her ordeal.

The cashier spotted five of the attackers - who dashed onto a subway train - and called SEPTA police.

Five suspects were captured by SEPTA police officers on the subway car at Fairmount Avenue. Tazwell said she identified them at the scene.

Police identified three of the attackers as Stanley Poland, 19, of Firth Street near 12th; Christine Wenray, 19, of 12th Street near Cumberland; and Tamira Sinkler, 20, of 10th Street near York.

The names of the two other suspects - a 17-year-old boy and 16-year-old girl - weren't released because they are minors. The search for the seven others continues, cops say.

All of the youths were charged with aggravated assault, conspiracy, robbery and theft, police said.

Tazwell said she suffered partial vision loss following the attack, and has painful bumps and cuts on her head. "I have a headache the size of Philadelphia," she said.

Tazwell said she couldn't explain the ordeal she suffered, but believes that the root of the problem extends beyond the teens themselves.

"It starts at home. They don't have strong foundations in their households, and that's why they come out and do senseless things."

Tazwell's attack struck an already sensitive nerve in a city that was left unsettled by the slaying of Conroy, 36, who died from a fatal asthma attack after he was inexplicably attacked last week.

Police officials said there was no explanation for Conroy's death - that he was attacked by teens who apparently thought it would be fun to senselessly beat someone they didn't know.

Five Simon Gratz High School students have been charged as adults with murder in Conroy's death. Investigators are still searching for a sixth person who was involved in that attack.

"It's really upsetting when you see this kind of stuff," said police spokesman Lt. Frank Vanore.

"It's a level of violence from a group of people you don't want to see that kind of violence from. They [teens] don't feel what they're doing is serious."

Anti-violence activist Greg Bucceroni said he's heard of teens attacking people at random across the city over the past three years.

"They have total disrespect for law and authority. It's a thrill for them, and they brag about it later," Bucceroni said.

"Unfortunately, sometimes people get seriously injured." *

Staff writer Gloria Campisi contributed to this report.