Police arrested three female juveniles on Sunday evening after they allegedly attacked two female students and robbed one of those students on Locust Walk, Division of Public Safety officials said.
The three juveniles, all unaffiliated with the University, approached a female student around 6 p.m. at the 3600 block of Locust Walk and allegedly punched her.
The student dropped her phone on the ground and the three juveniles, ages 12 through 14, allegedly picked up her phone and ran up the street, Penn Police Deputy Chief of Investigations Michael Morrin said.
The female student, a College senior who wished to remain anonymous for security reasons, said she immediately stopped a student and a runner who were passing by and that they called the police from a yellow call box.
Shortly after, the same three juveniles approached another female student on the 3800 block of Locust Walk, allegedly punched her and unsuccessfully attempted to steal her phone.
According to Division of Public Safety Vice President for Public Safety Maureen Rush, police stopped and arrested the juveniles on 3900 block of Locust within minutes after this second incident and they were taken into custody. The stolen phone was recovered and returned to the student, Morrin said.
Rush attributed the timely arrests to the PennComm system, which enabled police to follow the juveniles after the first victim called the police.
The three juveniles, who have no previous criminal records, are being charged with robbery, theft, receiving stolen property, conspiracy and simple assault.Rush said the judge could order the juveniles to stay away from a designated area such as Penn’s campus, but the only current requirement is that they wear an electronic monitoring system.
The first female student that was attacked said she was shaken by the whole incident.
“I found it disheartening and sad to witness violence like this, especially from such young girls,” she wrote in an e-mail. “I only wish that whatever their punishment or consequence, it will effect change deep within them.”
Comments
Let's Make Penn's Core Campus an Oasis like the Quad is
As a Penn Alum, the idea that students are attacked ON CAMPUS is quite disturbing (not to lesson any attacks elsewhere), but it seems a no brainer that Penn's core campus (Locust Walk & buildings from 34th street to 40th street) should be accessible by ID or visitor's pass only, just as the Quad is. We do it for the Quad, where students can feel safe, yet we don't do that for other mostly student oriented areas. Why not? The fact that a student cannot feel safe enough to walk on Locust Walk seems absolutely unbelievable. As an alum, I never felt that fear when I was walking on Locust Walk to classes. NEVER. Penn needs to readjust its thinking about making more campus areas "ID only", just like the Quad. Seems like common sense to me. For example, most commercial office buildings in cities require some identification or a visitor's pass in order to enter the building; if you are a Penn employee, a Penn visitor, or a Penn student, don't you deserve the same kind of protection as most other people already get in the "real world"? I'm surprised that Penn faculty, Penn employees, and Penn students aren't out protesting for this kind of "no brainer" protection. In light of the recent attacks on young female students by teenagers not affiliated with the university right on Locust Walk, I would think more would be actively petitioning for more areas that are ID only.
I AGREE
It's so easy for people outside of the Penn Community to get onto campus. They can get onto the bridge incredibly easily, and then that's it, they're in. That this incident happened at 6 p.m. is startling. The shooting was at 2 a.m. and that's a little bit more understandable. But students shouldn't feel any hesitation about walking within the campus at 6 p.m. That's insane. I personally think that you should also need an ID to get onto the bridge from the street. As a Penn student, I'm saddened that this happened. Measures need to be taken to make sure that nothing like this happens again.
Safety over freedom
I need my bubble. It's not that I don't value public space and the basic right of local residents to pass through an ever-expanding territory of privileged ownership, but I now live in fear and demand that Penn do something about it. I pay tens of thousands of dollars every year to get a good education--not to be surrounded by potential crooks and terrorists.
The above comments are spot-on, but they don't go far enough. Locking out the undesirables is a only part of the solution. Let us set up a fence on our borders, and if Penn can't provide enough watch-dogs, the school should allow students to arm themselves. These militias would, in effect, exponentially expand our policing force and keep the undocumented (non-ID holders) out of our land of liberty.
Let's Be Realistic Here
All the above commenters,
Penn's campus hasn't changed since the time you first visited the campus as either a potential candidate or a newly admitted freshman. When you chose to attend Penn, you knew you were going to a school in an open, urban campus. As a 2007 graduate, I spent my four years at Penn and grew very appreciative at all the administration has done to make the campus as safe as it can be. At the end of the day, Penn students have to accept that they are living in a big city. You can't eliminate all the risks that go with that.
Closing off the "core campus" to anyone but students and employees will not be an effective solution. I won't go into the logistical mess that would cause in terms of implementation and operation, those should be obvious. But more importantly, it will not eliminate any of these risks mentioned in the above comments.
First and foremost, I'm assuming you mean the "core campus" to be between Spruce and Walnut streets and between 33rd and 40th streets. If that's the case, any student living in King's Court/English, Hill or the Quad will have to leave the core campus to go home in between classes. Extending the "core" campus security to cover these dorms would entail closing off Walnut and Spruce to thru traffic, which obviously will not happen. That being said, the juveniles who attacked the girls on campus would just as easily commit that same offense on Walnut or Spruce Streets to students coming from or returning to their dorms or off-campus houses. You're not eliminating the riffraff, you're just repositioning them.
Let's face it - Penn is not an elementary school full of vulnerable children. It is a university attended by adults. These adults should be able to understand the inherent risks of living in a big city like Philadelphia. Fortifying the campus has a minimal effect on potential crime and does an even further disservice to the students who, in addition to learning their respective academic pursuits, should also grow to appreciate the realities of living in a large city. Engage your brain outside of the classroom, too.
The arrest of the seven,
The arrest of the seven, including two juveniles, brought relief after nearly a week of anxiety, medical appointments - and especially deafening silence from the 642-642 police department, Manning said.The police report documenting the incident as an assault and identifying it as a possible hate crime sat unnoticed in the wrong in-box from the morning of Jan. 24 until Thursday, when Manning's mother showed up at the Richmond Police Department to ask about the case.Hours later, Sgt. Lori Curran and a team of investigators got the pmi certifications paperwork."Thursday afternoon, I was given the report and my guys were working on it literally through the night," she said. "They didn't go home until Friday morning at 6 a.m."They had arrest and search warrants in hand Saturday morning. The seven comptia a+ certification suspects were arrested in Pinole, Rodeo, El Sobrante and Richmond, and booked on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon causing great bodily injury. Police said fists and feet were considered deadly weapons. Police also called it a hate crime.