Student assaulted at 38th and Sansom

A 41-year old male postgraduate student was assaulted at about 9 a.m. Friday at 38th and Sansom streets, according to the Division of Public Safety.

Vice President for Public Safety Maureen Rush said the student was walking westbound on Sansom Street with an iPod on when a male individual, who the student did not know, spoke to him. The suspect then lunged at the student and inflicted a puncture wound.

DPS spokeswoman Stef Cella wrote in an e-mail Friday that “the actual object that caused the wound is unknown at this time.”

The student was in “good condition” Friday afternoon but was kept overnight at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania for observation, according to Rush.

DPS did not respond to a request Sunday for updates on the weapon used and the victim’s status.

Cella said the victim was “in shock” and originally said he was assaulted outside the Penn Computer Connection, near 36th and Sansom streets. However, after further interviewing and review of closed-circuit camera footage, DPS believes the attack occurred further west at 38th and Sansom streets.

DPS also originally reported the student was in the School of Dental Medicine, but after further review, it was determined that he is a postgraduate student.

Rush said the student did not initially realize he was injured and continued westbound, while the suspect continued eastbound.

Penn and Philadelphia police are “working tirelessly” to find the suspect, who they believe is a black male between the ages of 25 and 40 years old, she said. He is believed to be around 5 feet 9 inches tall and to have been wearing a “dark hat or hoodie.”

Rush emphasized that the student and suspect did not know each other and that there was no argument. She urges students to “be aware of your surroundings” and to use the resources available if they see any behavior that looks “abnormal.”

The Division of Public Safety implemented the UPennAlert Emergency Notification System at 9:50 a.m. to send out 42,326 e-mails and 30,823 text messages informing the community of the attack.

The alert read, “UPENN ALERT. A student was assaulted at 3600 Sansom St by an unknown male. Penn & Phila Police are canvassing the area for the suspect. GO TO WWW.PUBLICSAFETY.UPENN.EDU FOR DETAILS.”

But College freshman Ryan Villanueva pointed out, “assault is a very broad category.”

The decision to send the alert was made because the location of the individual was unknown and the assault was considered a “random act of violence,” Rush explained.

UPennAlert was created in August 2007. The system has been used only once before in December 2008 when two women were sexually assaulted in an apartment at 44th and Spruce streets.

“I walk through there every day,” said Wharton freshman Manisha Taneja, who eats at King’s Court dining hall — close to where the incident was said to have occurred in the alert — three times per week.

The University received criticism last month when no alert was sent after two people were injured in a shooting at the Bridge Cinema de Lux at 4012 Walnut St.

“If they sent out an alert for this, they should have sent one out for the Bridge,” Villanueva said.

Rush explained that the incident Friday “was very different in many ways than the Bridge cinema.”

“Every day the world evolves and gives new information,” she added, which impacts such decisions.

Staff Writer Rachel Au-Yong contributed reporting to this article.

Comments (9)

I, like many other students, received the UPennAlert text this morning, and just recently learned that the "assault" that the text warned us about was actually a stabbing. While I think it's great that the Division of Public Safety has implemented UPennAlert to notify students about potential dangers on or around campus, such a poor choice of wording undermines the benefits of such a system. One of two accepted definitions for assault is: "a threat or attempt to inflict offensive physical contact or bodily harm on a person (as by lifting a fist in a threatening manner) that puts the person in immediate danger of or in apprehension of such harm or contact." (http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/assault). Considering the fact that an assault can take place when no actual physical contact has occurred, it was not an appropriate word to use considering the gravity of the attack. While the public safety website did let us know that the "assault" was unprovoked, it made no mention of the actual nature of the attack. I'm not going on campus today, but if I needed to, the words of that notification would not have stopped me or caused me to fear for my safety in any way. The alert text, or at least the Public Safety website, should have been more descriptive regarding the true facts of the incident.

The text sent today was useless. It did not even contain a description of the suspect. How is this message useful for the safety of the UPENN community?

In as much as I agree with the last comments that the text did not necessarily relay the gravity of the situation, can you imagine how much panic would have been caused by a text message alerting the WHOLE school that someone had been stabbed. I feel credit should be given to Public Safety for exercising discretion about how much information to provide to at least alert the Penn community without causing havoc and utter confusion. Sometimes it is good to wait until all the information is at hand before divulging the full story. I personally would not want to receive a message along the lines of "a Penn student has been stabbed - more information to come"! All things considered, I believe DPS handled today's situation rather well!

Check out the www - possibly using Google or Yahoo search engines and find Win-win Stress Management with Triggering Mechanisms a.k.a. Psychic Self-defense with Humanistic Alpha-wave Programming - copyright 1978 e. m. calter.

Look into "Instructions" and create/start workshops/classes that would educate the individual in society (especially students at Penn) to become prepared/able to abort all crime encounters including racism, anti-Semitism and brutality coming from any segment of society (even the men/woman in blue).

When the conscious ego punctures due to fear and/or danger we must have placed an alpha-wave field of positive energy as back up (in back of the conscious ego) so that we can give would-be criminals a shot of positive self-esteem at the crucial time when they're about to act out criminally. This “positive (deep) unified field process/experience” when the ego goes is what allows the crime encounter to be aborted.

Any crime encounter can best be described as a “negative (superficial) unified field process/experience” (also known as crazies who snap and act out) and can be counteracted with a “positive (deep) unified field process/experience (also known as being able to save one's own butt).” This antidote is well worth investigation and implementation as well as truly being an idea whose time has come.

It takes an inside job to change an outside environment in order to be safe and secure under any and all conditions. We can create a "positive (deep) unified field process/experience" from within the psyche to counteract any "negative (superficial) unified field process/experience" coming from a crime encounter.

We all deserve to be safe and secure under any and all conditions. The damage/carnage that can take place in the event of a crime encounter is preventable.

Betty Calter

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