Winter break crime continues to drop

As students return to classes this week, Philadelphians are emerging from a particularly violent holiday season. Although Penn witnessed a decline in crime over winter break, a mass murder and shooting struck University City and the surrounding areas. On December 28, seven people were shot to death at an abandoned house on Lex Street, located in the Mill Creek section of West Philadelphia, northwest of the University. Four men were arrested late last week in connection with the case and two were subsequently charged with murder. Jermel Lewis, 23, and Sacon Youk, 19, were each charged with seven counts of murder and 10 counts of robbery, and are being held without bail. Captain James Brady said the killing, one of the worst in Philadelphia's history and a source of national media coverage, was due to a dispute over drug prices. According to police, Lewis and Youk, along with two others, burst into a drug house the evening of the 28th. Two masked men ordered 10 people to hand over their possessions and lie face down on the floor. The men then sprayed the room with gunfire, resulting in the deaths of six men and one woman. Three others were injured. Brady, who is the head of the Homicide Division, attributed the arrests to the skills of PPD detectives and the $50,000 reward that was announced on Tuesday of last week by Mayor John Street. "The reward, on the fringes, helped," Brady said at a press conference held at Police Headquarters at 8th and Race streets on Friday. "It confirmed and reaffirmed what happened." "It really was just a lot of good, hard investigating," he added. Street praised the work of community activists for contributing to the apprehension of the suspects. "We're grateful and thankful for the cooperation of the residents and the community folks in the area," he said. And while Philadelphia police were investigating the Lex Street murders, violent crime came to University City last week. Early last Monday morning, a cab driver was shot in the face during a holdup at 42nd and Chestnut streets. Two men fired upon the driver as he tried to flee. The driver, 55-year-old Glenn Falso, drove one block to the University of Pennsylvania Police Department after being hit in the cheek. He was treated at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania and released the same day. Based on the driver's description of the two assailants, UPPD officers apprehended Anthony Rhem, 22, and Coles Abdulwaili, 20 -- both unaffiliated with the University -- later that day. Despite the shooting, University Police are pleased with the overall decrease in crime during the break. For the week of December 25 to January 1, only seven incidents were reported in the UPPD patrol area, which is down from 17 incidents the same week last year. "I've never seen anything like it," UPPD Detective Samuel Singer said. The jurisdiction of University Police spans the area between Market Street and Baltimore Avenue and between the Schuylkill River and 43rd Street. The majority of crimes during the break were thefts. A University student's 1993 Honda Accord was reported stolen sometime between the evening of December 15 and the morning of December 18. Five retail thefts -- two at the Barnes & Noble University Bookstore at 3601 Walnut Street and three at Urban Outfitters at 110 S. 36th Street -- were reported. In every case but one, juveniles unaffiliated with the University were reported as stealing the merchandise. An undergraduate student was reported to have stolen a sweater of a value greater than $50 from Urban Outfitters on December 22. The student was arrested.