CAMPUS BRIEFS: Thursday, January 23, 1997

Philadelphia residents robbed near campus A group of black men, driving a cream-colored Mazda, allegedly robbed two separate pedestrians at gunpoint just off campus before dawn yesterday, according to University Police Detective John Peterson. In the first robbery, which occurred at 40th and Market streets at approximately 3:40 a.m., an individual described as a thin, 25-year-old black man pointed a gun at a 48-year-old West Philadelphia resident, taking his Sony compact-disc player, headphones and $1,000 in cash. The gun was described as a nine-millimeter weapon, Peterson said. The perpetrator then jumped into a late-model white or cream-colored Mazda 929, occupied by three other men, which fled south on 40th Street. And just 10 minutes later on 40th Street between Walnut and Chestnut streets, a 21-year-old South Philadelphia resident reported that a tall, heavyset black man wearing a ski mask jumped out of a cream-colored Mazda, pointed a gun at him and took his backpack and its contents, Peterson said. No injuries were reported in the robberies, which are being investigated by University Police. -- Scott Lanman