Three 'guilty' in student's Jan. shooting

In what Assistant District Attorney Thomas McPherson called a "gruesome" crime, Donnell Green, 18, of West Philadelphia was convicted Wednesday of shooting a fourth year Systems Engineering graduate student in January. Two other juveniles involved in the Jan. 6 shooting of Keith Campbell at 42nd Street and Baltimore Ave. were placed in correctional facilities earlier this year, but a third alluded capture, McPherson said. "I was very relieved that [the verdict] came back guilty," Campbell said last night of the Common Pleas verdict. "I wanted to kill the guy when I saw him enter the courtroom. In general, though, I feel more fear [than anger]." At the time of the shooting, Campbell -- who was walking to a friend's house after a day at the laboratory -- heard footsteps behind him and turned around. Green demanded money, and three juveniles assisted him in robbing Campbell. Although Campbell held up his hands and complied, Green pointed a .22-caliber gun toward Campbell's neck and fired. "He had the pistol right at my collar," Campbell said. "By some miracle it didn't hit my neck." Apparently, Campbell was saved by his heavy winter jacket. The bullet was deflected by his coat and grazed his neck before it passed through his shoulder. Ironically, the same 18th District plain clothes officers who witnessed the murder of fifth year Mathematics graduate student Al-Moez Alimohamed last month witnessed the shooting of Campbell, McPherson said. The officers caught Green and two of the three juveniles a block away. According to McPherson, the arresting officers said the robbers were laughing as they ran toward 42nd Street. Before being transported to the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, Campbell positively identified the suspects. "The violence was so senseless, the victim was standing there with his hands up, he was making intentionally no actions to alarm [Green]," McPherson said. "There was no reason to shoot him, except to make sure that he couldn't make an identification." After three hours of deliberation on Wednesday, a jury found Green guilty of robbery, criminal conspiracy, possessing a weapon of crime and a related violation. He will be sentenced on November 10, and could receive 17 to 34 years. McPherson said Green could be released after five to 10 years on parole. The exact time of his release will depend on his behavior in prison and the size of the city's prison population, McPherson said. Although police did not find the weapon on the night of the crime, Campbell found the still-loaded revolver the next day in bushes near the crime site, McPherson said. "[Campbell] came and told the jury that the man who pulled the trigger was standing across from him in the courtroom," McPherson said. "[I would like to express] gratitude to the victim for being an exemplary witness. He went above the call of duty to find the weapon himself." Campbell, who suffered no permanent physical injury from the incident, said the shooting left him with a sense of fear of the city. "I'm happy to be alive and I'm looking forward to moving to some dinky town where everyone knows each other," he said. "It definitely had an impact on my life." Campbell added that he is currently consulting with Engineering professors to develop a security system for a senior independent project. He feels that a beeper-type device could be developed that would put students in direct contact with police. Green's conviction comes in the wake of other incidents of students becoming victims to violent crime in the past year. Last month, Alimohamed was shot and killed outside his apartment at 47th and Pine streets. Wharton senior, Samir Shah, was also shot at 39th and Pine streets last month.