Students robbed at 40th and Pine
Female student, 21, hospitalized in 14th incident in 3 weeks
By andrew whitney
October 31, 2005



Another violent�robbery occurred near campus early Friday morning, sending one Penn undergraduate to the hospital.

The incident represents the 14th robbery or assault in the area over the past three weeks, but police made an arrest on Friday that they hope will help combat the trend.

At about 3 a.m., two Penn undergraduates � a 21-year-old woman and a 19-year-old man � were attacked as they walked west on the 4000 block of Pine Street.

Two men reportedly approached the victims quickly and knocked them to the ground.

The men proceeded to take $80 in cash from the woman�s purse as well as $50 in cash, a wristwatch and a cell phone from the male victim, Penn Police Deputy Chief of Investigations Mike Morrin said.

During the attack � possibly as she was knocked to the sidewalk � the woman suffered a deep cut to the back of her head. She was transported to the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, where the wound was closed using stitches and staples. She was released shortly afterward.

The male victim was not seriously injured.

After the victims were cleared medically, police interviewed both of them.

Penn detectives have been in close contact recently with Philadelphia Police officials to investigate whether recent robberies near Penn could be connected to crimes elsewhere in the city.

The Philadelphia Police Southwest Detective Division had three outstanding arrest warrants for Benjamin Walker, 20, of the 600 block of North 36th Street in West Philadelphia, that related to robberies outside University City.

Penn detectives believed that Walker may have had a hand in robberies near Penn.

They showed a photo lineup to the female victim in Friday�s attack, and she positively identified Walker as one of the two attackers.

Later Friday, Penn Police raided one location in search of Walker as Philadelphia Police searched another.

Philadelphia officers located Walker and took him into custody.

He is charged with four counts of robbery and related offenses.

Morrin said that Penn Police have leads as to the identity of the second attacker in the Friday morning robbery.

Police are reportedly also looking into whether Walker might have been one of the two men who punched and robbed a 25-year-old Drexel graduate student Wednesday evening as she exited her car on the 4000 block of Walnut Street.

In addition to those for Walker, police have issued three other arrest warrants for suspects who they believe are responsible for recent robberies near campus.

As a drexel student and spending thousands of dollars a year. I don't feel safe when I go around the University of Penn. campus many times. As much as college tuition is we should be better protected. Well, assuming we can ask the local politicians for help City Councilwoman Jannie Blackwell, State Rep. Roebuck and other community leaders. After reading some of the polls and comments I wonder if that is a great idea it seems like their only in office to collect a PAYCHECK!

I AM GLAD THIS IS MY LAST YEAR.

This property management company is trouble. The two major problem properties on my block are owned by them. I have called their offices several times and left messages with regard to these properties, but never gotten a response from them. That's great news that they are doing the Mantua redevelopment project.

You tuition goes to your college. If you feel they could be spending more of it on hiring security guards perhpas your beef is with the administration of your university.

I sometimes don't feel safe around Penn because of the drunken spoiled college boys wanting to pick fights. A few suburban rich kid brats tried to randomly pick a fight with my friend and I when we were leaving a show at the Mill Creek Tavern just the other week. The only reason the college boys felt so brave was because there were 6 of them and 2 of us. Where can people in the neighborhood go to demand better behaviour from students?

Look I'm not rying to pick a beef with you but I have to say except for the fact that there is a higher population density around the Universities - there is no reason why the fact that your tuition is high should have any bearing on the level of municipal services you are entitled to demand from out of the pockets of taxpaying Philadelphians. An African American grandmother at 56th and Kingsessing is every bit as enititled to feel safe walking from her house to the trolley stop or to the corner store as you do at 38th and Sansome but I bet she doesn't. Everybody deserves decent police protection and city services.

Whether our local polls are smart about allocating what resources they do have is entirely another question however. Students incidentally are huge voting block that completely ignores local politics or just votes the party ticket for the most part. If more of your felow students checked in and pushed hard for local reform (like voting for the ethics reform charter change on Nov. 8th) maybe the performance of local government across the board (not just around the university) would improve.

Well I guess it was my time. Last night I was driving towards drexel from the zoo and upon stopping for the light at 34th and Haverford and this little <14 year old kid walked up next to my car and pointed a gun into it. Upon seeing my startledness the little @$$hole just turned and walked back to his little hommies and then as i was drivng through the intersection someone threw a bottle and struck my car causing damage of course. I was so fuming, what can be done i called the police and they said they would send someone but i truely have the feeling that these little bastards (believe me i had much more descriptive terms) will do nothing but get away with it. And you know what I know that the one reason this kid came up to my car was becuasei was white. So let me just say don't drive through west philadelphia with a nice car after dark when the weahter is pleasant, it brings out all that is bad with philadlephia.

I am really sorry to hear about what happened to you, glad that you didn't get hurt. What time did this happen?

Really sorry to hear that this happened to you. One sad fact about this happening in Philadelphia is that many people don't just experience this while passing through, but a lot of people have to live in this environment. Young and elderly black people (along with some others in poorer West Philly neighborhoods) in West Philadelphia aren't immune from being victimized as well, actually they're stuck with it on a daily basis. The Philadelphia Police Department has to do better with the growing number of muggings and assaults. Seems like this happens in cycles, then the cops catch the group doing it, then another group springs up some time later.

Glad to know West Philly is controlled by 14-year old thugs. I'm sure it's not the only section of the city and Philadelphia isn't the only city where this is happening. Who would have the brains (and balls?) to take a page out of the Guliani mayoral handbook? Cut down on petty crime and violent crimes will drop, too. People who commit low-level crimes will eventually graduate onto more serious crimes. In the case of those 14-year olds, they care more about looking good in the street than about life in general. They'll eventually come across a not-so-innocent-looking victim, if you know what I mean.

Now that I'm done fuming...

Agreed. It's easy to sit here and complain about something I don't know a whole lot about, but I'll do it anyway and say that my impression our PD is that it's so unimaginative about finding ways to reduce and prevent crime, it's pathetic.

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