Students threatened at gunpoint

Man had machine gun Five University students were accosted by a man brandishing what they described as an "Uzi or a TEC-9" within a block of campus Saturday afternoon. University Police Sergeant Keith Christian confirmed that University Police responded to an incident broadcast over Philadelphia Police radio at 2:42 p.m. describing four males with a gun at 40th and Locust streets. A College junior, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said he and two friends were in the street loading furniture into a car when a dark green compact vehicle with three men drove by and honked their horn at the students. The student said the car stopped about 30 yards away from where he and his friends were standing, and a man approached them. "He gets out of the car and starts screaming 'Which one of you fuckers gave me the finger,' " the student said, adding that he and his friends did nothing to provoke the man. "I see that he is carrying a gun in his hand and it is pointed directly at me." The only description the student could provide was that the man was, "a black male, wearing a striped sweater and a ski hat. "I figured if I ran inside he would shoot and kill me," he added. "If I stayed there I thought I was dead." He said that after some confusion, he and his friends decided to run into the house even as the armed man continued to yell at them from the street for several minutes before fleeing in the dark green car. "I thought he was going to start shooting up our house," said another student, a Wharton senior, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. "The way he was holding the gun, I was expecting shots." The students said they called Philadelphia Police after the car drove by their house a second time a few minutes later. The College junior said that later in the day, Philadelphia Police stopped men who matched the description given by the students. But the students said they refused to identify the suspects out of fear for their personal safety, he added. For the students, the incident has been a sobering experience. A College of General Studies sophomore, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said that when he called Philadelphia Police he was so nervous that he ripped the phone from the telephone jack. "I was so scared that I couldn't even function," the CGS sophomore said. "I honestly thought the guy was going to shoot me. "I'm getting out of West Philly as soon as the semester is over," he added. "I thought when someone pulled a gun I would be calm and rational. When he went for the gun, I lost it. The guy really seemed like a psychotic." The CGS senior said that police could not have stopped the incident from occurring. "This is a safe street," he said. "I think the cops do a good job. [The suspects] don't care about cops. If they got a dispute to settle -- they are going to settle it their way."

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