“A 19-year-old Temple University student suffered serious facial injuries after an attacker hit her with a brick only a block from campus Friday.”
So begins a report published Monday by the Philadelphia NBC affiliate, which further notes that the coed “was walking with her 20-year-old boyfriend, who also attends Temple, near 16th and Norris streets around 6 p.m. when a group of about 10 teens and young children began taunting them, according to sources.”
The group of attackers consisted of boys and girls ranging in age from about 8 to 14-years-old, according to the victim’s boyfriend.
The boyfriend told reporters that “a couple of them started to grab at her earrings and her hair,” adding, “my instinct was to stop them from hurting us and leave and get away.”
He says he asked the group to back off, but his request went unheard as a female member of the group took a brick and smashed his 19-year-old girlfriend in the face.
“Her teeth were out of place,” he said. “It was terrible, it was terrifying.”
The victim’s teeth were dislocated and she suffered multiple other facial injuries.
Not a lot of information on the suspects, but maybe CBS Philly gives a more complete description:
Authorities say the woman was walking with her boyfriend on Norris Street around 6 p.m. on Friday when four girls, believed to be between 16 and 17-years-old, approached from behind. One of the girls hit the victim in the face with a brick at the intersection of 17th and Norris Streets, while the three other girls tried to rob the victim’s boyfriend.
[…]
Philadelphia Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey says his department is investigating this crime aggressively.
“It’s kind of like what we saw with the phenomenon of the so-called flash mobs a few years ago. You get groups of kids together, they do things that in some cases they wouldn’t otherwise normally do. But, there’s no excuse for it. We find it, we’re going to bring them in and deal with them accordingly.”
Nope, we’re two for two. Two network affiliates, but very little information Philadelphians can use to identity the perps for purposes of self-preservation and maybe help the cops nab them.
Maybe three’s a charm. ABC affiliate WPVI ran an item today devoting over 400 words to the story, but not one of them included a descriptive syllable about the assailants, except to repeat that they were teens. There is also the proviso that “Temple students are repeatedly told to be aware of their surroundings and to look for potential threats to their safety.”
So who are these mystery marauders, and what do they look like? For an answer, we turn to the Philadelphia Police Department, which has released a surveillance video that even includes a physical description:
On March 21, 2014, a large group of black females approached a college student and her boyfriend at 1700 Norris Street. One of the females struck the victim in the face with a brick, causing extensive damage, while others in the group attempted to rob her boyfriend. They were last seen boarding a SEPTA bus traveling south on 17th Street.
The footage includes long shots of a group of four prime suspects and close-ups of several:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=kkg9AcXWKuA
There, was that so hard?
