Posted on 11/11/2004 2:41:31 AM PST by Max Combined
PHILADELPHIA - Third-year medical student Lea Sullivan walked out of a grocery store Sunday afternoon onto a busy sidewalk in one of the city's most vibrant neighborhoods, and met a savage, inexplicable end.
A burly man in a ski mask attacked the former homecoming queen from behind, clubbing her in the head with a baseball bat and continuing to beat her after she fell. The attack lasted seconds — a minute, tops.
Although South Street was crowded with shoppers, no one tried to stop the attack.
But witnesses did get a good look at the assailant, who removed his mask. "He took it off so everybody could see him," said Lt. Michael Morrin of the homicide division.
Bystanders also took down the man's license plate number, leading police to Nader Ali, 26, a former medical student who had been placed on leave from Jefferson Medical College last year because he had been acting erratically, according to a school spokesman. Ali was arrested Monday at his parents' home in New Jersey.
Police have not disclosed a motive for the attack and refused to comment on Ali's mental state or provide any other details, other than to say that Sullivan's roommates described Ali as just an acquaintance of hers.
The slaying shocked and baffled friends and classmates at Jefferson and cast the campus into mourning.
"What a beautiful girl," said Miriam Massucci, who works at a flower shop across the street and saw Sullivan being loaded onto an ambulance. "She could have found the cure for something and now she's gone."
Sullivan, who was from the well-to-do suburban Philadelphia community of Bryn Mawr, died Monday at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, where she and her classmates made rounds as part of their third-year duties.
Friends and fellow students described her as friendly, popular, pretty, athletic and outgoing but offered little other information about her, saying Sullivan's family had asked them not to talk. Her parents did not return a call, nor did Ali's.
Come on now. This is hardly fair and very divisive. There are many decent, red blooded conservatives living in what you call "Blue States". The fact of the matter is that in most "Cities" most people dont want to get involved. This is a tragedy. Yes, it probably was a liberal onlooker crowd, no doubt. But to characterize people who live in blue states in such fashion is rediculous and unfair. If that had happened in front of me or any of my friends, it would be the perpetrator who did not survive!
Oh, there are certainly exceptions, no doubt about it.
I'm talking about the "culture" of these areas. In that context, I stand by what I said.
Indeed. The excuses fly with this one.
"I can't help the way I talk to you; I'm bipolar."
"I can't help my choices; I'm bipolar."
"Anything that isn't right about me is because I am bipolar."
"Oh, I only killed her because I am bipolar."
BUUUUGH.
This man killed her because he was an abusive-possessive personality type who kill women if they can't have them. A la OJ Simpson.
I hope this scum never sees the light of day again.
Sometimes when something happens so fast and in a crowd,
it's hard for people to notice quickly enough to react.
We just don't expect something so stupid to happen in
certain environments.
Recently there was a serial killer in the Baton Rouge area. He has since been caught. I got both of my daughters at LSU Glock 19's with the then hard to get hi cap magazines. They both can shoot well and that is exactly what I told them, Aim for center mass and don't stop until he goes down.
In 1998, Ali, then 19, was charged with assault and serving alcohol to minors following a brawl at a friend's house, the Bergen County Record reported at the time. Ali, trying to get unwanted guests to leave the party, had started the fight by throwing a cigarette in a guest's face, police told the paper. He was hit in the head with a bottle and needed 30 stitches.
It wasn't clear Tuesday whether Ali was convicted in that case.
******
"This wasn't a chance encounter," said Lt. Michael Morrin of the homicide division. "He knew she was there and he went looking for her."
But no one seems to know his motive.
"We've just got to find out 'why' now," said Det. Sgt. Timothy Cooney of South Detectives, which initially investigated the attack. Robbery was ruled out as a motive.
snip
"You don't hit someone in the back of the head and not intend to kill them, " Cooeyn added. He said the killer then jumped into a car with New Jersey plates that had been parked on the south side of South Street and drove off.
snip
Both Sullivan and Ali had started out life on a similar trajectory, born and reared in affluent suburbs, both eventually with the goal of becoming a doctor.
Last night, a friend of Ali's family said that they were from Egypt and that Nader Ali was the oldest of three siblings who grew up in a large house on 2 acres in Franklin Lakes, an upscale bedroom community of New York City. She said his father, Farouk, is a chemist.
snip
Friends weren't surprised that Sullivan had chosen to become a doctor. "I think the medical field was totally her calling," said high school classmate Corey Weber, 25. "She was really wanting to help people. I think she would have been an awesome doctor."
In her senior yearbook, a baby picture is printed with a message from her family:
"Dear Lea, we treasure you always. You are kind, strong, smart, talented and beautiful. The world is yours. Love, Mom, Dad, Kara and Luke."
well, actually Bipolar with mania can be characterized by paranoid psychosis and delusion. You are partly right. It is more likely that he has schizoaffective disorder but the line between that and Bipolar psychosis with prominent paranoia is pretty hard to see at times.
You are right and anything anybody could do in terms of the law getting involved would have been lame. The man should have been picked up and put someplace where he couldn't hurt her but unfortunately it isn't done. I wonder if she knew him, must have. Poor parents, they should have at least got her home safe till he was off the streets.
If I were in any of the Kerry hell-holes, I'd have already called U-Haul while there are trucks available. It is dangerous to live among the Muslims anywhere in the world. Just ask the Dutch. They thought being PC would save them. Wrong.
"This might be a hate crime murder"
As opposed to a regular murder?
The problem is that there are people like this everywhere and this guy grew up in this country. He was clearly a walking bomb, had been kicked out of med school, had ahistory of violence. This occurs in blue states as well, pick up your morning paper and you see it. These people just go and go and go. And a gun doesn't help you when someone rushed up and gets you in the head from the rear with a baseball bat.
The law has to do something preemptive. When he showed at her house the day before, the police should have been called and he should have been incarcerated someplace. I just hate these stories, they could happen to any of us anywhere, armed or not.
Because it the "correct" thing to do. Lay down, roll over and expose America's soft under-belly to the world! Makes no sense to a God fearing, Jesus loving, gun packing, wife... kid and dog kissing and protecting Redneck.
seems he grew up here, his father is a chemist in NJ. Maybe he was born here. I don't think he is a recent arrival.
I don't know Philly.
I don't know this neighborhood.
But I'll bet that it's a "gentrified," YUPPI, liberal area.
"I'll bet that it's a "gentrified," YUPPI, liberal area."
It's a nice area with many interesting restaurants, shops and historical sites. Liberal area, true. Some are probably on the path to recovery after this incident.
After all is said and done, more is said than done, and
perhaps that applies to these people on this forum who
only halfway read a person's post then call them a coward.
You don't know me or my mindset.
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