4 men try to rob U. Police officers

A group of four men tried to rob two undercover University Police officers near 41st and Locust streets at 11:35 p.m. last night, according to Philadelphia Police. Details of the incident were incomplete early this morning, but Philadelphia Police Officer Robert Colins said that no officers were injured. Police had one suspect in custody last night, although Colins would not release the man's name. In an apparently unrelated incident moments after the attempted robbery, a man was found shot in the arm at 41st and Walnut streets and was taken to the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania by a city ambulance. In the first incident, Philadelphia and University police cars lined the 4100 block of Locust Street at midnight, and up to 12 officers were looking for bullet holes in neighboring cars and buildings. A Philadelphia police crime lab was being dispatched at 1:15 a.m. Students from the surrounding houses said they heard the incident and watched the police reaction. College senior Guy Burman said he and his two roommates were upstairs in his house on the 4100 block of Locust Street when the officers were attacked. "We heard what sounded like a gunshot," Burman said. "We heard the police yell something on the walkie-talkies: 'Suspect heading from 41st toward 42nd Street.' " College senior Russell Klein said that when he came out onto the porch of his house, he saw uniformed officers restraining a man against a police car. The man, who complained to police that they were hurting him, was put in the back seat of a patrol car, and officers drove him away, Klein said. During the search of the area, the students said they watched a plain-clothed University police officer find a pipe and show it to several uniformed officers. Larry Sanders, a 1990 College graduate, said the plain-clothed officer held it at his hip as if he was re-enacting the crime and told the other officers: "This scared the shit out of me." Police would not discuss the robbery weapon this morning. The students said the attempted robbery only added to their fear of crime. Burman called the neighborhood a "war zone," adding that "you can't really go out at night." "This hasn't heightened my concern," Sanders said. "My concern was always great. I just never thought it would be that close." In the Walnut Street incident, a Philadelphia Police officer said police found the injured man, who refused to talk to police or identify himself, lying on the steps of 4041-3 Walnut Street. The officer said police have no motive or suspects. "The only thing we know is that he was shot in the arm," the officer said. HUP Nursing Coordinator Linda Knox said early this morning that the victim, whom she would not identify, was in stable condition.

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