Video captures shooting panic
Footage of a crowded bowling alley where a gunfight erupted was released in an effort to identify suspects.
You can't hear the shots being fired, but surveillance videos released by police yesterday offered a view to what happens when gunfire erupts in a crowded bowling alley.
People dash for the doors, a panicked mass on the run for their lives. Parents grab children and flee. Young men dive over counters and crouch. Others duck and squeeze behind video machines for cover. A gunman kneels and peers around the corner. One suspect holds his head where he was grazed by a bullet. Hardly any time passes before a police officer arrives, gun drawn.
The scenes were captured on three cameras at the Brunswick Adams Lanes bowling alley at Foulkrod Street and Tabor Avenue in Crescentville about 12:30 a.m. Sunday after what police believe was a bumping incident.
Police said more than 200 people were in the bowling alley at the time.
One man there with his children got caught in the crossfire and was hit in the legs. Police said he has been released from the hospital. Lt. Mark Burgmann of Northeast Detectives said police released the tape in the hopes of identifying eight men police believe were involved in the shooting.
Five of them, along with wounded suspect - Ephraim Chasten, 19, of 1700 block of West 67th Avenue - are seen leaving and then reentering seconds before the shooting set off a stampede at the door. "It's apparent to us that what they did was to go out to their vehicles and get their guns," said Chief Inspector Joseph Fox, chief of detectives.
The other three men are shown in another room, one of them holding a gun and another clutching something under his shirt.
Chasten was arrested at Albert Einstein Hospital after he went there seeking treatment. He has been charged with a variety of offenses, including aggravated assault.
Anyone with information was asked to call detectives at 215-686-3153.