City police report 4 robberies and 1 assault over break

The Philadelphia Police's 18th District reported in The Almanac last week that there were four robberies and one aggravated assault which occurred over spring break near campus -- crimes which had been previously unreported to the University community. According to the 18th District crime report, there were three robberies involving a gun, one strong-arm robbery, and one incident of aggravated assault. University Police spokesperson Sylvia Canada said last week that because many of the crimes were reported exclusively to Philadelphia Police without any involvement of University Police, the University may not be aware of the crimes until the published report. "If they aren't reported to us, and they are reported only to Philadelphia, we may not know until we see the published crime report," Canada said. However, University Police Lieutenant Susan Holmes said that two of the robberies involving a gun were committed by the same person, and that University Police made the arrest after the second incident. Police Commissioner John Kuprevich said last week that he did not know why the information was not made public and attributed the mistake to a foul-up in communication. "We have no excuse for this not being made public," Kuprevich said. "There was a snafu in the information flow and we will work to insure that this will never happen again." "There is certainly no reason why we wouldn't want this information known considering that we made the arrest," he added. Lieutenant Holmes said last week that on March 11, the Domino's Pizza store at 3801 Chestnut Street was robbed at 9:45 p.m. by an unidentified man who carried a gun. The following night, Holmes said, a man, armed with a knife, tried to rob an attendant at the Presbyterian Hospital parking lot on Market Street near 39th Street. Holmes said that a scuffle ensued involving the attendant and the would-be robber in the middle of which, a gun was drawn. The attacker then fled the area, Holmes said. Officer Patrick Tevis, who was on patrol in the area of 34th and Walnut streets, heard of the incident on his radio and spotted a man fitting the description of the assailant. Tevis kept the suspect under surveillance until a backup unit could arrive, Holmes said. She added that the man was apprehended in the 100 block of 32nd Street, where he was frisked and Police found a gun. The parking lot attendant was brought to the scene and positively identified the man as his assailant, Holmes said. The same man was later identified by employees of Domino's Pizza as the man who had robbed their store the previous night. Holmes did not know what charges the man faced, but said that an arraignment date had probably been set for sometime late last week.

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