Assault, robbery hit U. City over Thanksgiving

In the most serious incident, a fight at 40th and Spruce streets sent a student to the hospital. Three major crimes near campus --Ea pistol-whipping, a robbery and a carjacking -- marred this year's Thanksgiving weekend, according to official police reports. None of the victims, including two Penn students, were badly injured in the incidents. At about 3 a.m. yesterday morning, a verbal argument between three Penn students and two men who had been driving by them as the students left Smokey Joe's escalated into a physical altercation, according to the reports. The men followed the students down 40th Street for two blocks in their car, before exiting the vehicle at Spruce Street and prompting a fight, police said. A suspect struck one of the students in the face with the butt of a pistol several times, and then fired two shots into the street before the two suspects fled in their vehicle westbound on Spruce. College and Engineering sophomore Bjoern Hartmann, who said he was driving past the scene in a Penn Shuttle van, said the struggle looked chaotic. "There were multiple fights going on at the same time," he said. The victim was treated for facial lacerations at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania and released, according to police. He declined to comment last night. The incident is being investigated as an aggravated assault. As of yesterday afternoon, police had not made any arrests. About five hours earlier, another University student was robbed of his leather jacket at gunpoint. As the student walked near the corner of 40th Street and Baltimore Avenue at around 10 p.m. on Sunday, two men -- one armed with a shotgun -- approached him and ordered him to lie on the ground, according to police. A Spectaguard security guard who was patrolling the area called for University Police assistance, and officers pursued the two suspects as they drove west, police said. The suspects jumped out of the car at 55th Street and Ridgewood Avenue, where Philadelphia Police officers apprehended one of them while the other escaped. Arthur Cuffy, 24, of the 5400 block of Trinity Street, was arrested and charged with robbery and related offenses, according to a University Police report. The victim, whose name was not immediately available, identified Cuffy as his assailant based on his clothing. The student was unable to identify the suspect's face because he was wearing a mask during the robbery. Philadelphia and University Police officials are still investigating the incident. And on Friday morning, newspaper deliverer and Temple University student Damon Bennett found less to be thankful for when he was carjacked while dropping off copies of The Wall Street Journal on the 4000 block of Walnut Street. Bennett, 25, said last night that as he returned to his car after dropping off two copies of the paper at about 6:15 a.m., a man standing behind him yelled, "Don't move." He turned around and saw that the man had a gun pointed at him. The robber walked toward the car, got in and drove west on Walnut Street. After filling out reports with University and Philadelphia Police and identifying the assailant from a mugshot, Bennett and his father -- a retired Philadelphia police officer -- roamed the streets of West Philadelphia. They eventually found the 1996 Ford Taurus late that afternoon near 46th and Pemberton streets. While the car itself was not damaged, all items of any value that were left inside -- everything from a cellular phone to cough drops -- were missing. "Anything that could be used or sold, he took," Bennett said. University Police officials declined to comment on any specific aspects of the investigations.