Posted on 03/26/2008 4:38:09 PM PDT by Main Street
The incident occurred at about 2:35 p.m. before the turnstiles on the Market-Frankford Line concourse at 13th and Market streets, police said.
One adult male was taken to Jefferson University Hospital but was later pronounced dead.
Police said homicide investigators have been summoned to the scene.
A transit police sergeant was on patrol on the eastbound platform at the time of the incident.
"While on patrol, he notices across the way, on the westbound concourse, a white male adult, about 30-years-old, and he's being confronted by four, young black males. A disturbance is obvious to him. He goes to investigate," said Capt. Steven Harold of the transit police agency.
Police said the man, who worked at a nearby Starbucks, appeared to be a in a defensive mode, as if threatened by the teens.
As the transit police sergeant approached, he radioed in that a fight was possibly in progress. The juvenile males fled down the concourse, while the man was in some type of physical distress.
SEPTA police said they took one male into custody on the concourse, near 11th Street, in connection with the case.
"The man goes into what appears to be cardiac arrest. He's unable to give any information as to what actually was transpiring," Harold said.
The man was rushed to the hospital but later pronounced dead.
Authorities said they are now trying to determine the extent of the physical altercation.
"The sergeant's view was observing some type of disturbance that the male was having with these four youth," Harold said.
Police did not release a description of any other juveniles possibly involved in the incident.
Commuters were being turned away from the westbound entrance but service on the Market-Frankford Line was not disrupted.
Philadelphia and SEPTA police have launched a joint investigation into the incident.
It does not matter what the colors of the skin, 4 against 1 is a gang killing.
Four against one...
EPTA police said they took one male into custody
that’s enough to get the rest
Looks like a hate crime to me
Oh, come on. That never happens.
It's never one-on-one, unless the thug outweighs you by at least 25 pounds or is 20 years younger.
The wording in the police statement is agonizingly awkward. There is much not being said here.
I’m shocked at the amount of detail in the story.
30-year-old going into cardiac arrest? Something stinks here.
It’s still murder.
Four against one is what counts as courage in gangs.
Sounds to me like a drug deal, spiking some smack, and things go wrong for everyone at that point.
Just another day in “The City of Brotherly Love”
True, but my point was that I’m skeptical that that’s all that happened. Can it happen? Sure, but it’s extremely unlikely, IMHO, unless the guy was really overweight or something.
I’m 38, weigh 25-30 pounds more than I should, but I still bike 150 miles for charity every year. It seems to me that it would take something extraordinary to send a 30-year-old into arrest...unless it was externally inflicted (hint).
The white man should definitely be charged with a hate crime, instigating the whole affair by using the N-word, having a miniature noose in his pocket, wearing a t-shirt with a confederate flag on it, and of course the most serious offense of all, being white.
No hate crime there?
Smokin some crack or spiking some meth can make anyones heart go poof.
Charge them with denying the white guy his civil rights.
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