Temple junior Eric Moore, 19, was shot in the leg outside White Hall at Broad and Diamond Streets on Main Campus around 7:45 p.m. Wednesday night.
According to Temple Vice President Bill Bergman, Moore was standing on the sidewalk in front of the dorm where he lives when two unidentified males approached him. There were “words” exchanged and one of the unidentified males drew a gun, firing “several shots” at Moore.
Temple police, who responded immediately, took Moore to Temple University Hospital with a gunshot wound to the leg and a few graze wounds. As of 11 p.m Wednesday, he was resting comfortably in good condition, according to Bergman.
Moore was lying on the sidewalk where he fell when Temple police arrived, according to Bergman. The first responding campus police officer pursued the suspects west, behind the residence hall, then returned to take Moore to the hospital.
Less than an hour after the shooting, police barricades closed the block of Carlisle Street north of Diamond Street while a Philadelphia police helicopter equipped with a high-powered search light scanned Carlisle and 15th Streets west of White Hall.
For Temple students and officials, the scene was a frightening resemblance of one last February, when Temple senior and football player Elmarko Jackson was stabbed, also on the sidewalk in front of White Hall. Vice President of Student Affairs Valaida Walker threw up her hands and shook her head after conferring with Bergman and Temple Police Deputy Director Charlie Leone, as students and passersby milled about the police-tape-cordoned scene.
Wednesday night’s shooting was similar to the Jackson stabbing in more ways than one. Bergman said that Moore believed his assailants were fellow Temple students.
Bergman said he “sees no connection” between this shooting and the stabbing of Jackson. He does not believe that Temple police officers witnessed the whole incident leading to the shooting, as officers reportedly did when Jackson was stabbed at the same place under apparently similar circumstances in February.
“It’s definitely football related,” a high-ranking Temple police officer–who would not comment on his remark–was overheard saying on a radio.
Temple police and administrative officials declined to comment further. Leone said police were waiting for the football team roster. The current roster does not list Moore as a player. An answer about whether the police wanted to check the roster for suspects or informants was not available as of 11 p.m. Wednesday.
“It’s not a crime wave,” Bergman said in response to concerns that people might perceive two violent crimes, committed at the same place in less than a year, as indicative of an unsafe campus. “It’s interpersonal violence the university, the community, and the city has to deal with.”
As of 11 p.m. Wednesday, police said the suspects had not been spotted nor apprehended. It was not known whether the two suspects fled together, and no weapon had yet been recovered.
Philadelphia police and Temple police are conducting a joint investigation. Capt. Thomas Walsh of the Philadelphia police, who arrived on the scene around 9 p.m. Wednesday, had no information to add to Bergman’s statement to the press, issued at about 9:15 p.m. Wednesday.
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