Police apprehend three in off-campus shooting

Michael Rainey, a 30-year-old black male of the 4400 block of Sansom Street, was pronounced dead at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania on Friday at 9:20 p.m. after suffering a gunshot wound to the head early that morning near his home. University Police officers apprehended three unidentified black male suspects in connection with the shooting. The three were taken to the Philadelphia Police Department headquarters at 8th and Race streets where they have been charged with homicide, University Police Deputy Chief of Investigations Tom King said Tuesday. According to Lt. Susan Slawson of the Philadelphia Police Department's Office of Public Affairs, an investigation determined that Rainey was a bystander between two groups who were firing at each other from opposite sides of the street. University Police officers responded to a radio call-in of a shooting Friday at 1:50 a.m. on the 4400 block of Sansom Street. Upon arrival, they found the victim lying in the street with a gunshot wound to his head. Rainey was transported to HUP and was put on life support at 3:26 a.m., Slawson said. Two Penn Police officers then observed a white Pontiac on 46th and Walnut streets that matched the description given in the radio call-in and followed the vehicle for several minutes, King said. At 41st and Chestnut streets, the driver of the Pontiac crashed into two other vehicles that were waiting for a green light, King said. According to King, three males, whose names and ages were not released, then exited the vehicle. All three suspects were apprehended by Penn Police officers. One suspect was carrying a Tec 9-millimeter machine pistol and another male exited the vehicle carrying a .357-caliber revolver. A third male exited the vehicle but was not armed. The three suspects were then transported to the homicide unit of the PPD, King said. "This was excellent police work," King said. "Not only in the arrest, but in the fact that two of the three men apprehended were armed."