Student escapes from abduction

A taxi driver saved a graduate student from being abducted by three men early yesterday morning in front of the Mellon Bank Building at 36th and Walnut streets, according to Southwest Detective Lois Jones. Jones said that the student was attempting to hail an Olde City Taxi -- that already had a passenger in it -- at about 3:45 a.m. She said the taxi driver first pulled over to the side of the street to drop off his passenger, and then went to pick up the student. By this time, however, two males were attacking the student. Jones said that the taxi driver then began to honk his horn and yell at the males to stop hitting the student. The two males apparently stopped the assault and fled in a gold Subaru, containing an additional man, after the taxi driver threatened to radio the police, Jones added. University Police Sergeant Keith Christian said the taxi driver then followed the suspects' vehicle. While in pursuit, the taxi driver radioed the Olde City dispatcher who called Philadelphia Police, he said. Jones added that officers from Philadelphia Police's 19th District joined the high-speed car chase that eventually ended near 55th and Hunter streets. Christian said the three suspects then "bailed" out of the Subaru and are still at large. But multiple forms of identification that are believed to have been stolen from victims in previous robberies were found inside the vehicle, Jones said. This is not the first abduction on or near campus, however. About one year ago, a woman was almost kidnapped by a carjacker in an incident in front of King's Court/English House. A woman was sitting in the passenger side of a black Acura Legend, when a man jumped inside the car and began to drive away. The woman struggled to leave the car, but the man fought to keep her in the vehicle. Two second-year law students, Dave Shields and Dan Cohen, rescued the woman from the car. Also, a College of General Studies student was sexually assaulted, robbed, and shot in the face after being abducted by a man in a parking lot across the street from the Law School in October of 1993. And that same week, a 55-year-old former University instructor was abducted and forced by her assailant to drive to North Philadelphia, where he attempted to use her MAC card.

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