Bridge shooter still at large, police say

Other Photos

Photos from outside the Bridge just after the shooting on Jan. 15, 2010

Police are still searching for the man who shot a Drexel University student and an off-duty police officer just before 7 p.m. Friday at the Bridge Cinema de Lux at 4012 Walnut St.

Philadelphia Police spokeswoman Tanya Little said the investigation is “ongoing” and that no arrests have been made.

“We’re actively looking for him,” she said.

Philadelphia Police Chief Inspector Scott Small, who was at the scene, said the suspect is a 5-foot-8-inch male with a thin build and at the time wearing a dark, hooded sweatshirt and a mask over his face.

Vice President for Public Safety Maureen Rush said the incident was a “botched robbery” that turned into a shoot-out.

“[The suspect] was armed, he was interrupted, and a gun battle ensued,” Rush said.

The University did not send out a UPennAlert — an emergency notification used to alert the community — because the suspect was not believed to be an immediate threat, Rush said Friday.

The Division of Public Safety would send out an alert “if we believed that [the suspect] was a deranged individual that would cause harm to others in the area,” Rush said. She added that she believed the situation was “well under control.”

The two wounded individuals were sent to the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, where they both underwent surgery. According to DPS spokeswoman Stef Cella, the men are now in stable condition. The Drexel student, identified as sophomore Jared Hurwich by the Drexel Triangle, was still in the hospital as of Monday evening.

The police officer, unaffiliated with the Philadelphia Police, was shot in the left shoulder in the lobby of the theater, according to Small. Rush said the officer was a member of the Capitol Police Department in Harrisburg.

Small called the Drexel student, shot in the left leg, an “innocent bystander.” Based on where the he was standing, he was likely shot by the suspect, Small said.

According to Small, the suspect entered the lobby wearing a mask and proceeded to an employee-only section of the box office. The off-duty officer attempted to intervene and at least 12 shots were fired. Small said it is unclear who fired first and whether the suspect was shot during the incident.

After the shots were fired, the suspect fled on foot with an unknown amount of money. Rush said he fled westbound on Walnut Street and southbound on S. 41st Street.

Police were notified of the incident at 6:57 p.m. and responded shortly thereafter. Some money from the attempted robbery was recovered, according to Rush.

A College junior, who was leaving a house on the 4000 block of Walnut Street but asked to remain anonymous, was between the Rotunda and the Bridge when she heard shots fired. She saw people running out of a side entrance in the theater and “turned around and ran all the way back to the house.”

Gabriella Yudenich was about to enter the theater when the shots were fired, said she saw people in the lobby “diving and throwing themselves on the ground,” then saw the suspect flee out a side door.

Staff Writer Jenny Chung, City News Editor-elect Jared McDonald and Campus News Editor-elect Darina Shtrakhman contributed reporting to this article.

Comments (9)

Can someone please explain to me why no one was sent a notification stating that there was a possible gunman on campus? I understand we live in a dangerous neighborhood but tonight is what public safety can call an EPIC FAIL! Thanks for the heads up that every student on campus may have been in danger.

Someone who tries to rob a movie theater at peak hours and fired multiple shots into a crowded lobby injuring two people sounds pretty "deranged" to me. He clearly had no compunction about harming others. If there were ever a situation to use the emergency notification system, last night's was it. The decision not to borders on incompetence.

If you define a "possible gunman" as any person (other than law enforcement) with a gun, then I would surmise that there is a "possible gunman" around at any time within zip code 19104, and probably every zip code in the 50 states. You should not use an emergency notification system just because there is a gunman around. Using the emergency system to freak out the entire community could only get in the way of Police trying to do their job.

Proper use of such a system includes instance of terrorism, insane gunmen (Virginia Tech case, for example), or an outbreak of a very contagious disease.

Bigkahuna

When there are several police helicopters hovering around by 40th and Walnut, numerous police cars blocking off sections of Walnut and Locust, and I can hear police sirens blaring from the street, I'd generally like to be informed of what is going on.

Also, another poster made this statement: "Using the emergency system to freak out the entire community could only get in the way of Police trying to do their job."

While that may be true, I was more 'freaked out' when I didn't know anything about what was happening.

I too was waiting for an Emergency Notification that never came. I was waiting in front of the bookstore 2 blocks East on Walnut at 6:57pm and saw 2 police vans flying by and one officer on a motorcycle flying at tremendous speed.....I knew it was something more than an accident like my fellow commuter thought it was. I checked my phone for an alert, there was none and then apprehensively I got on that bus, but had I known the real reason, I would've headed East instead and taken SEPTA. We could see the flashing lights 2blocks West as we waited for the bus. It came a little after 7pm, and went right on up to the Bridge where traffic became snarled. then the driver turned one block north and then we headed west until we had a clear path to head south....probably passed the suspect on the way. but I was too busy watching the crowd pour out of the theatre.

hmmmm... anyone else curious as to why there was no race included in the description? or was it to be assumed

Wolfgang,

Chief Inspector Scott Small said that the suspect's race could not be determined because he was wearing a mask.

Noah Rosenstein Online Managing Editor-elect

Probably for the same lame excuse that Virginia Tech kept the first two student murders under wraps. Protection of the school's image. If Friday's robber and shooter did shoot and kill any of Penn's students in the area, Penn would have to send the emergency notification. And would probably have a number of law suits as Virginia Tech has had. Betty Calter

But nearly three months later — and after repeated revisions of the official account of the incident and a lowering of the death toll to two — authorities said they were still trying to reconstruct what happened Sept. 4 on the Danziger Bridge. And on the city's east side, where the shootings occurred, two families that suffered casualties are preparing to come forward with stories radically different from those told by police.A teenager critically wounded that day, speaking about the incident for the first time, said in an interview that police shot him for no reason, delivering a final bullet at point-blank range with what he thought was an assault rifle. Members of another family said one of those killed was mentally disabled, a childlike innocent who made a rare foray from home in a desperate effort to find relief from the flood.The two families — one from New Orleans East and solidly middle class, the other poorer and rooted in the Lower 9th Ward — have offered only preliminary information about what they say happened that day. Large gaps remain in the police and civilian accounts of the incident.News of the Danziger Bridge shootings roared across cable television for a time. But as with many overblown reports of crime and violence immediately after the hurricane, the facts remain elusive.

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