18-year-old male shot near Liacouras Center

TYSON MCCLOUD
SHANNON MCDONALD
The Temple News

UPDATE: Police have named the victim as Khiry Caldwell, pictured to the left. As of 11 p.m. Tuesday, he is in stable condition at Temple Hospital.

An 18-year-old male is in critical condition at Temple Hospital this afternoon after he was shot in the back around 4:15 p.m. near the 1700 block of North Broad Street following his high school’s graduation ceremony, police said.

The male, who had graduated from Strawberry Mansion High School in a ceremony that ended minutes earlier at the Liacouras Center, was struck when shots were fired outside of the Barnes & Noble at Broad Street and Cecil B. Moore Avenue after a fistfight among about 12 males, said Capt. Laurence D. Nodiff, commanding officer of the 23rd police district.

Police have five men in custody and are looking for another potential suspect dressed in an orange shirt, Nodiff said. He did not provide any other details about the men in custody or the potential suspect and said he did not know if they were Strawberry Mansion students.

Nodiff also said that no gun was recovered at the scene.

“This is supposed to be a day of celebration,” Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey told reporters while standing within the yellow caution tape that surrounded the front of Barnes & Noble. “It’s unfortunate.”

As Strawberry Mansion graduates exited the Liacouras Center, a fight erupted outside of Wendy’s and progressed past the Barnes & Noble, Nodiff said. As the scuffle continued past the bookstore, Temple Police arrived and attempted to diffuse the situation when shots rang out.

Students, friends and family who were filing in for Martin Luther King High School’s graduation ceremony – which was held after Strawberry Mansion’s commencement – were among the crowd that gathered outside the Liacouras Center following the shooting. Local TV news trucks were parked along the street as helicopters hovered above and passerby looked on.

The Liacouras Center, a 10-year-old, 10,200-seat arena, hosted three high school commencements today, including Dobbins Tech High School’s ceremony in the morning, said two of the facility’s employees who asked not to be named.

Caution tape was removed from the scene at 6:05 p.m.

An investigation into the shooting is ongoing, authorities said.

Stay with temple-news.com for continuing updates on this story.

Tyson McCloud can be reached at tyson@temple.edu.
Shannon McDonald can be reached at shannon.mcdonald@temple.edu

Photo courtesy myspace.com.

No TU-Alert a louder message after shooting

Temple tested TU-Alert, its emergency alert system, on Friday, May 9. Students who have registered with the system received a text message, phone call and e-mail explaining that the message was only a test.

On Tuesday, May 13, shots were fired at 15th and Norris streets. No one got a TU-Alert message.

The shooting occurred around 11:30 p.m. A 19-year-old non-Temple female was shot in the chest, and the security kiosk on the corner has bullet holes in it. Marshall Thomas, the 19-year-old suspect, is still on the loose, as the Temple News reported [“Shots fired at 15th and Norris,” Chris Stover and LeAnne Matlach, May 13, 2008].

William Bergman, Temple’s vice president of operations, sent an e-mail to students on May 14 informing them that the incident was believed to be the result of a domestic disagreement and was not a random crime.

Bergman went on to say that neither the victim nor the suspect is believed to have a connection to Temple, and that students did not receive an alert message because the “incident had been contained.”

This was an error in judgment on Temple’s part. The intersection of 15th and Norris is a busy spot: the turf field and Liacouras Center are right there, and many students live nearby. Though the people involved in the shooting are not affiliated with Temple, the crime took place near Temple property and endangered the life of an AlliedBarton security guard who was sitting in a security kiosk marked with a Temple “T” at the time of the shooting.

Police officers declared the incident contained, yet the suspect is still roaming the streets nearly a week later. Although authorities determined that Temple students were not at risk because the shooting was not random, police have labeled Thomas as being armed and dangerous.

An alert message should have been sent out anyway to inform students of the incident. Waiting until the next day to send an e-mail was passive-aggressive and compromises the legitimacy of the alert system.

To make matters worse, Temple may have unknowingly undone its ties with the surrounding community. For all its efforts to be recognized as a neighborhood-friendly university, Temple’s inaction on May 13 sends a conflicting message.

The shooting may not have occurred directly on Temple property, but it happened within campus boundaries, and therefore affects students and community members who live there. If Temple wants to keep up its reputation as community-involved university, then it needs to uphold those standards at all times.

A teenager was shot, but she doesn’t go to Temple, so there was no need for an alert. That’s the image Temple has presented, intended or not.

TU-Alert was set up to warn students about possible dangers on campus. The shooting at 15th and Norris took place near campus property and student residences. An emergency message should have been sent out, even if Temple students were not directly affected. There is no harm in being overly cautious.

The university needs to stop picking and choosing which alerts to send out, because the absence of an alert sends a louder message to students and community members.

Shannon McDonald can be reached at shannon.mcdonald@temple.edu.

Search still underway for shooting suspect

Read full coverage of the shooting here.

This isn’t the first time Philadelphia Police have been after shooting suspect Marshall Thomas.

Thomas was arrested in June 2007 on nine separate charges, including carrying firearms in public and recklessly endangering another person, according to a court docket.

All charges were dropped, however, in October 2007.

Police are still searching for Thomas, 19, after naming him as the only suspect in Tuesday night’s shooting at 15th and Norris streets. Thomas allegedly shot a 19-year-old female in the chest.

The victim, who has not been identified, is in critical but stable condition at Temple Hospital.

If you have any information on the whereabouts of Marshall Thomas, contact Philadelphia Police or dial 9-1-1.

The charges for which Thomas was arrested last year are:

• Inflicting serious bodily injury during robbery
• Carrying firearms without a license
• Theft by unlawful taking
• Receiving stolen property
• Carrying firearms in public
• Possessing a weapon with the intent to commit crime
• Terroristic threats with the intent to terrorize another
• Simple assault
• Recklessly endangering another person

Chris Stover can be reached at stover@temple.edu.

Temple responds to shooting

Read the full report here.

Read the criminal history of suspect Marshall Thomas here.

Temple has released a statement about last night’s shooting at 15th and Norris streets.

The statement, sent through e-mail by Vice President of Operations William Bergman, addresses Temple’s decision not to use the TU-Alert system to notify students, faculty and staff about the incident.

“Because the police determined that the incident had been contained, the alert system was not implemented,” Bergman said.

The TU-Alert system, which sends text messages, voicemails and e-mails to those who registered, was just tested on Friday.

The statement acknowledges the shooting of a 19-year-old female outside of a security booth next to the turf field Tuesday night around 11:30 p.m. Police are searching for their suspect, Marshall Thomas, 19, who is considered armed and dangerous.

“[Philadelphia Police] believe the shooting was a result of a domestic disagreement, and neither the perpetrator nor the victim are believed to have any ties to Temple,” Bergman said.

The victim, who has not been named, is in critical condition at Temple Hospital. The guard in the booth, an AlliedBarton worker, was not harmed.

If you have any information on the whereabouts of Marshall Thomas, contact the Philadelphia Police Department or dial 9-1-1.

Chris Stover can be reached at stover@temple.edu.

Shots fired at 15th and Norris

Read Temple’s response here.

Read the criminal history of suspect Marshall Thomas here.

LEANNE MATLACH
CHRIS STOVER
The Temple News

A 19-year-old female shot at 15th and Norris streets late Tuesday night is in critical condition at Temple Hospital.

Police are now searching for their suspect, Marshall Thomas, 19, of the 900-block of Brown Street. They say he is considered armed and dangerous.

Lt. Quaiser of the Philadelphia Police Department confirmed at the scene the victim, a non-Temple affiliated female, was shot in the chest around 11:30 p.m. Tuesday. Police have not released the name of the victim.

Witnesses said as many as five shots were fired outside of a security kiosk by the turf field. The kiosk has bullet holes in it, and the security guard who was in the booth at the time is fine.

Temple Police said the victim was shot while standing in front of the security kiosk. Thomas and the victim were having an argument before shots were fired, police said.

Police took about nine witnesses, including some Temple students, to Police Headquarters for statements. They named Thomas, a 19-year-old black male, as their sole suspect Wednesday. Thomas is said to have left the scene on a bicycle.

After the shots were fired, people in the area began screaming and huddling, witnesses said. Police closed access to Norris Street from Broad Street after the incident. The scene was mostly cleared by 2:10 a.m.

“My friends were walking home from 7-Eleven and the streets were blocked off. I came outside and the cops were everywhere,” junior journalism major Audra Neff-Williams said.

“I called Temple Police, trying to find out what happened, and they said they could not provide any information,” senior business major Mike Sweet said. “I think we have a right to know what’s going on. No TU-Alert was sent out.”

As of 11:30 a.m. Wednesday, no TU-Alert was sent by the university. Temple tested the system last Friday.

“I understand that cops won’t say anything at crime scenes, but Temple’s whole thing is the TU-Alert,” Sweet said. “I mean, they just tested it [a few] days ago.”

Ray Betzner, director of university relations, said an alert was not sent out because the incident is considered a domestic dispute and was not seen as an ongoing threat to the Temple community.

Temple Police said another security guard will be on duty at that location later today.

Call Philadelphia Police or 9-1-1 if you have any information regarding the whereabouts of Marshall Thomas.

Stay with temple-news.com for continuing updates on this developing story.

Chris Stover and LeAnne Matlach can be reached at templenews@gmail.com.