Safety ambassadors shot at near campus

No one was injured during the incident at 40th and Market streets. A man shot at but did not injure two University City District safety ambassadors near campus Sunday afternoon, police said. The safety ambassadors were attempting to quell a dispute between an assailant and a woman at 40th and Market streets at the time of the incident, authorities said. Safety Ambassadors Raymond Blocker, 28, and Darren Graham, 31, were "shook up" by the incident, UCD Executive Director Paul Steinke said. Philadelphia Police are investigating the shooting. Police have not yet arrested the suspect, who police said pulled out a revolver when the two unarmed officials approached him. The man also had two small children with him, according to police. The ambassadors immediately fled from the scene, as they are instructed to do when faced with "trouble," Steinke said. Police were unable to locate the suspect. "It's unbelievable, just unbelievable," Steinke said of the shooting, the first the safety ambassadors have experienced in their five months patrolling University City. The primary duty of the gold-jacketed safety ambassadors is to deter crime and report incidents, acting as extra "eyes and ears" for the police, Steinke explained. Before being assigned to the streets, safety ambassadors attend a four-week training program. "This is the first, and hopefully the last" incident of this kind, Steinke said. He added that the incident has prompted UCD officials to counsel their 41 foot and bicycle patrols to "avoid volatile situations." After the shooting, Blocker and Graham were transported to the Philadelphia Police Department's 18th District headquarters at 55th and Pine streets for questioning. UCD guards report to 18th District officers, perform roll call with them and receive weekly updates about the neighborhood twice every week, a process which Steinke claimed has built a "rapport" between 18th District officers and UCD safety ambassadors. As a result of this relationship, Philadelphia Police officers are handling the investigation rather than Penn Police, although the new Penn Division of Public Safety headquarters on the 4000 block of Chestnut Street is only about a block away from the site of the incident. About 30 safety ambassadors patrol the area from the Schuylkill River to 50th Street and from about Spring Garden Street to Woodland Avenue. They are part of the UCD, whose employees also sweep sidewalks, clean graffiti and may soon provide consulting services to businesses interested in moving to University City. The UCD, created last summer, is funded by area institutions and businesses including Penn, Drexel University, the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy and Science and Amtrak. It currently operates out of a suite at 3508 Market Street and a building on the 100 block of North 34th Street. But the UCD is in search of a more centrally located spot on or close to 40th Street, which would put it close to Penn's new Public Safety headquarters. Steinke said he hopes to have finalized a new location by the start of the fall semester. Steinke considered moving the UCD into the former Public Safety mini-station on the 200 block of South 40th Street. But he said the storefront, which formerly housed Spectaguard security guards, a student-run town watch and other operations, was too small for the UCD. One of the reasons Steinke needs space is that he plans to station several Philadelphia Police officers alongside the safety ambassadors. He added that the police, who would only be bicycle and foot patrols, would perform roll call with the safety ambassadors daily. Ideally, the safety ambassadors and police could share information on crime patterns, he said.

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