Witnesses: Teens hassle man on El; he stabs 3

A group of eight teens attacked a man in his 40s on the Market-Frankford El Saturday night, provoking him to stab three of them, witnesses told police.

The incident occurred just three weeks after three teens were found guilty in the beating death of a subway rider in March 2008.

On Saturday, seven boys and one girl were heading home to West Philadelphia at about 11 p.m. when an altercation broke out between them and the man after the train had stopped at the 52nd Street station, SEPTA spokesman Richard Maloney said.

The argument spilled out onto the 56th Street platform, where all eight teens and the adult got off the train, Maloney said.

It was then that the man pulled a knife and stabbed three of the teens, said Officer Tanya Little, a police spokeswoman.

"According to some witnesses interviewed, the males were attacking the 40-year-old on the train and they may have provoked him," she said.

All three injured teens - an 18-year-old who suffered stab wounds to the chest and lower torso, a 16-year-old who was stabbed in the left thigh and a 15-year-old who was stabbed in his torso - were transported to the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia in stable condition.

There was no surveillance video of the confrontation on the train or platform, Little said. The man fled the scene on foot, according to police.

Southwest Detectives Lt. John Walker said that the cause of the initial dispute remains unknown but that police would like to speak with the El passenger involved in the altercation.

"It appears as though the 40-year-old male was being attacked by this group of kids," Walker said. "That's why he probably defended himself and stabbed them. We'd like to talk with him and hear his side of the story.

"Witnesses are supporting that he was probably losing the battle and may have been defending himself."

On Aug. 25, three teens were convicted in the death of Sean Patrick Conroy, a Starbucks manager whom they beat on a Center City subway concourse on a dare.

Conroy suffered a fatal asthma attack during the beating.

The teens face a mandatory minimum of five years in prison when they are sentenced Oct. 29.