4 trucks recovered after terror alert

4 trucks

recovered

after terror alert

* Five-block area around 54th

Street and Chester Avenue, in Kingsessing

City police have recovered four rental trucks that were stolen over the weekend, triggering a terrorism alert on the eve of the 10th anniversary of 9/11.

A five-block area in Southwest Philadelphia's Kingsessing section was closed off about 2:30 a.m. yesterday after police found two of the trucks a block apart.

Police bomb teams were called in and declared the all-clear after inspecting the vehicles, one at 54th Street and Chester Avenue, the other at 54th and Trinity streets.

A third stolen van was found before 8 a.m. on Park Avenue near Allegheny and the bomb squad was again called in. The fourth truck was reportedly recovered at Chadwick and Reed streets in Point Breeze.

The four trucks were stolen at 7 p.m. Saturday from a U-Haul lot at 12th Street and Washington Avenue, South Philadelphia, police said. Police Chief Inspector Scott Small said the theft of the four vehicles triggered an alert because rental trucks have been used as truck bombs.

Man shot, killed

in Point Breeze

* Mole Street near Wharton

A 23-year-old man was shot and fatally wounded early yesterday in South Philadelphia's Point Breeze section, police said.

Officers responding to a report of gunfire found the victim with a wound to the abdomen about 1:50 a.m., police said.

The man was taken to Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, where he died at 7:14 a.m., said police. They were looking for a black male in his 20s seen running from the scene with no shirt and wearing black pants and white sneakers.

Fake cop arrested

* H Street near Hunting

Park Avenue, in Juniata

Police have arrested a 23-year-old man they said had pretended to be a police officer - complete with a badge, leather holster containing handcuffs and a black pistol - while trying to rob two men last night.

The imposter identified himself as a police officer, then began patting the men down, said Capt. Frank Vanore, of the 25th District. Vanore said the gunman tried taking their money, before the two realized he was not a cop.

The man jumped into a blue Toyota Corolla and drove off. The victims got in their car, called 9-1-1 and chased the man describing the would-be thief to a dispatcher.

Police from the 25th District stopped the unidentified suspect on C Street near Westmoreland, in Kensington.

Man shot in leg

* 23rd and Wharton

streets, Point Breeze

Police were investigating a shooting on the western edge of Point Breeze last night that left a 23-year-old man at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania in stable condition with a gunshot wound to the leg.

The shooting happened about 7:30 p.m. Police said the victim was not cooperating with responding officers.

- Staff report