Man shot and killed near 40th and Spruce streets

An early-morning shooting near 40th and Spruce streets left a 31-year-old man dead Tuesday.

Philadelphia Police said the victim was shot in the chest and torso at point-blank range multiple times from a semiautomatic weapon. He was rushed to the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania and was pronounced dead at 1:43 a.m.

Neither the victim nor the suspected shooter are affiliated with Penn, according to the Division of Public Safety.

Multiple witnesses positively identified a 26-year-old man as a suspect, police said. The suspect attempted to flee but was immediately taken into custody by Penn Police near 40th and Pine streets, where Penn Police also found a semiautomatic gun that matches the ballistics from the scene. At least ten shots were fired.

Penn Police is turning the investigation over to the Philadelphia Police Homicide unit. As of press time, Philadelphia Police had no further information on the suspect, and neither Philadelphia Police nor Penn Police confirmed the suspect’s name.

The shooting took place at 1:30 a.m. outside the door of Copabanana, a bar at 4000 Spruce St., although both the victim and the suspect were inside the bar earlier in the night, according to police. There were about 25 other people in the bar at the time of the shooting, but there were no other injuries.

“There’s absolutely no student affiliation involved in the incident,” Vice President for Public Safety Maureen Rush said. “The patrons inside of the bar, as well as the individuals involved, are not affiliated with the University.”

Rush said that the two men got in an altercation before the shooting. Kevin, a man at the scene who preferred not to give his last name, thought the fight started over a woman. Kevin had been in the bar to see the start of the argument but left and heard the gunshots while he was outside.

The shots brought the bars’ neighbors running to their doors and windows to watch the scene unfold.

“There was a bloodcurdling scream,” said Katherine, a University of the Sciences senior who preferred not to give her last name, and who lives across the street from Copabanana. 

Above: The victim's blood and baseball cap were on the sidewalk outside of Copabanana.

Just down the street from Katherine, a woman sobbed with a Penn Police officer's arm around her shoulder. Earlier, the woman had been crouched against the houses on 40th and Pine streets, crying and shouting, before the police helped her stand. An officer walked her and a friend toward Spruce Street, an arm around each woman.

“He was right there,” the woman sobbed. “They shot my friend.”

As police examined the crime scene, a southwest Philadelphia resident, who preferred not to give his name, waited for his car, which was trapped by the crime tape that ran from either side of the bar across 40th Street. He was in the bar when the shots were fired.

“I hit the floor,” he said.

As of about 3:30 a.m., Rush expected police to be out processing the scene for the next several hours. Police believe all of the bullets were identified. There are cameras inside and outside Copabanana, as well as across the street from where the incident took place, according to police.

There have been several shootings on campus over the past decade. In 2010, police chased suspected carjackers onto the field near 40th and Locust streets. The incident ended in a shootout, leaving one of the suspects dead. In 2006, then-Engineering sophomore Mari Oishi was shot in the thigh near 38th and Sansom streets in January after leaving a fraternity house.

See video of the police statement below.

City News Editor Harry Cooperman, Staff writer Jill Castellano and General Assignments Editor Jody Freinkel contributed reporting.

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