Posted on 09/27/2003 1:58:00 PM PDT by Dog Gone
Police in West Chester are looking for an assailant they believe used a crossbow to shoot a pedestrian from a passing SUV.
The victim, a restaurant worker who was walking home along High Street early Sunday morning, was shot in the stomach with a 16-inch hunting arrow. He was released Wednesday from the University of Pennsylvania Hospital in Philadelphia.
Benito Vargas told police he was at the corner of High and Barnard Streets at about 1 a.m. when he saw the white SUV's driver-side window slide down, revealing the front part a crossbow just inside. Seconds later, he was lying on the ground.
The driver sped off, heading south on High Street, Vargas told police.
Police said Vargas, 48, of the 100 block of West Barnard Street, had just completed a shift as a dishwasher at the Turks Head Inn.
Police said yesterday that they had no witnesses to the attack. They hope to find the archer by matching him with the arrow. Police said the red, broad-head-tipped arrow has a 14-inch shaft and razor tip of about 2 inches. It's a type generally used for hunting animals, police said.
"This thing would be silent. You wouldn't hear any noise," West Chester Detective Thomas Yarnall said. "Only thing that may have been seen was a car speeding off down High Street. But at that time, probably several cars go down... that street."
Yarnall said the shooting appeared random, and that no additional shootings had occurred since then. He said Vargas told police there were four men in the car, but that he was not able to provide their descriptions.
Yarnall, who has worked in the borough for more than 30 years, said this was the first time he had investigated someone being shot with an arrow.
Pedestrians, many of whom are college students, frequently walk along High Street, one of West Chester's main thoroughfares, to get downtown from campus.
Anyone with information is asked to call West Chester police at 610-696-2700.
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