Police continue search for clues into shooting

Although no arrests have been made, detectives have conducted 40 interviews and are following numerous anonymous tips. Philadelphia Police Department Homicide detectives continue to sort through accounts of the chaos caused by an unidentified gunman who shot a man to death and injured three others, including a University student, near the Palestra after a high school basketball tournament Sunday. Sgt. Alex Strong, a detective with PPD's Homicide unit, said last night that the unit had interviewed "in excess of 40 witnesses" from the crowd of thousands that spilled from the Palestra onto 33rd Street at about 4 p.m. after the Philadelphia Public League high school boys basketball championship. Strong said the confusion created by the throngs of fans around the Palestra complicates the investigation. Penn officials estimated the game's attendance to be about 3,700, but eyewitnesses said as many as 6,000 people were at the game. "Due to the large number of people on the street, you're confronted with people who are ducking and dodging, and it's hard to actually find someone who said, 'Yeah, I saw the whole thing,'" Strong said. "[But] we've got a lot of anonymous tips that we're trying to follow up on and confirm." Police have not yet arrested a suspect for the shooting, Strong said. But he added that a man dressed in a red jacket who witnesses saw police arrest on Hill Field shortly after the shootings may assist the unit in finding a suspect. The man was one of two individuals police charged with weapons violations for carrying guns following the shooting. Strong would not disclose the names of the arrested individuals. Exiting fans and nearby students described a stuttering series of about 15 gunshots fired from what police believe was a semiautomatic weapon. One of them killed Anthony Davis, 22, of the 1400 block of North 17th Street, and wounded his friend Jeffrey Noble, 19, of the 800 block of North 16th Street, in the back. Noble was treated and released from Thomas Jefferson University Hospital Sunday. Yesterday, Homicide detectives removed a green late-model Lexus that was abandoned in the middle of 33rd Street between Walnut and Chestnut streets. Detectives said they believe Davis and Noble were driving the car before they were shot. But the detectives had not yet confirmed who owned the vehicle, which had temporary license plates. Several University Police officers said they believed Noble and Davis had been involved in a fistfight which broke out during halftime of the game. The officers suggested the shooting was an extension of that altercation. Strong added that police found a gun "within very close proximity" to Davis' body. He would not comment as to whether either victim has a criminal record. Two others, including College senior John La Bombard, were also injured in the gunfire. La Bombard was inside the Blauhaus -- a temporary, shed-like, blue Fine Arts building next to Hill House on 33rd Street -- finishing a woodworking project when one of the three stray bullets that hit the plywood wall of the building penetrated it and struck him in the lower thigh. La Bombard, 21, of Queensbury, N.Y., was released from Allegheny University Hospitals-Hahnemann's trauma unit at 4 p.m. yesterday, a nursing supervisor said. The student was not immediately available for comment yesterday. Latisha Feribee, 20, of the 1600 block of Bailey Street, suffered serious damage to her arm when she was shot in her elbow as she made her way through the dense crowd on 33rd Street. As of last night, Feribee remained in stable condition at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, where surgeons operated on her arm yesterday. College freshman Christian Terrell, 19, said he was returning a drill to the Blauhaus when the shots were fired. "I was right on Hill Field, just about to cross it, when I heard all these shots that sounded like firecrackers," Terrell said. "I got down on the ground and saw all these kids on the ground? just freaking out and crying. "Then I finally got up and turned around, and I saw the cops shaking [a kid] and seeing if he was okay," he continued. "Then they picked him up and he was just totally limp with his head dangling back." The incident raises serious questions as to whether the University will host the championship in the future. Last year, shots fired outside the Palestra after the event sent the crowd into a frenzy, but no one was injured. Temple University last hosted the championship at its now-defunct McGonigle Hall in 1991, before the event moved to the Civic Center for five years. Temple Police Lt. Bob Lowell would not cite a specific reason why the North Philadelphia school no longer hosts the event. But he said he did not "expect we would host it again" if Penn refuses next year. Lowell added that while there were minor incidents at Temple-hosted athletic events in the past, he does not remember gunshots ever being fired at an athletic event in his 15 years at Temple. But many officials expressed regret that the murder, which police believe is unrelated to the game itself, blackened the reputation of the high schools and their teams. Strong said the incident was the result of an "ongoing altercation between the victims and another group of people," stressing that it "wasn't related to the schools," although Noble is a student at Ben Franklin High School, which beat Franklin Learning Center 61-56 in the game. At the Palestra Sunday, 10 University Police officers, 40 Philadelphia School District police officers and 60 security guards were on duty. In addition, all entering spectators had to pass through metal detectors. "The security was ample," Strong said. "Campus police did their parts and controlled what went on inside the Palestra. Once they were out on the open streets, it was pretty much fair game." And Drexel University Associate Director for Athletics Johnson Bowie praised Penn's Athletic Department, stressing that a lack of security could not be faulted for the incident.