Report reveals compartive facts on area’s murder rate

By Sam Fran Scavuzzo
Collegian Editor
September 19, 2007

Violence in and around La Salle may not be as deadly as commonly thought, or at least not as bad as many other sections of Philadelphia, according to Collegian research.

Three murders and six shootings around La Salle were reported to the Philadelphia Police for the period that occurred between Jan. 1 and June 30. This information is culled from the city-wide statistics, 203 homicides and 648 shootings and indicates that roughly 1.5 percent of the homicides and 0.9 percent of shootings occurred around La Salle. No murders were reported to have occurred on University property.

“Overall, you feel safe,” sophomore computer science major Brian Hannan said. “It doesn’t feel like the city. There’s trees and stuff.”

Commuter students experience an added dimension with their daily trip to and from La Salle. Often, they have to make the long trek to Good Shepherd Parking Lot when closer parking is unavailable.

Senior speech-language-hearing science major Natalia Musitano is comfortable with her drive from Bucks County. “I generally feel safe,” she said. “I definitely feel a lot safer at La Salle than I do at Temple.”

Musitano often utilizes the shuttle to help her get where she’s going.

While these numbers seem low, La Salle is losing the battle in comparison to other local universities. Excluding the Temple University area, which amassed eight murders and 16 shootings in the same period, La Salle came up behind other local schools. The University of Pennsylvania, St. Joseph’s University and Drexel University had three homicides among them all, with Drexel’s area registering zero. Shootings were also low in these areas.

The murders and shootings that occurred during the first semester include: 1. Dantae Phillips, 21, was shot in the head Jan. 5 at his home on McMahon Street, three-and-a-half blocks northwest of St. Teresa Court Apartments. Two other shootings occurred at the same time and location. 2. Damary Hernandez, 21, was killed Jan. 13 at 1 a.m. near Ogontz and Chew avenues. 3. Francisco Rodriguez was shot three times June 5 in what police called a robbery at Broad Street and Lindley Avenue, one-quarter mile east of South Campus. 4. Other shootings occurred March 30 at Chew and East Locust avenues and April 29 near the location of Phillips’ death.

Over the summer, La Salle updated its security by installing several new lights on Main and West Campus and purchasing three security booths, as well as more state-of-the-art security cameras and Blue Light Emergency Phones (“Security adds more protective measures,” Collegian 8/29/2007, p.1).

“I think [the security improvements] help immensely,” John M. Gallagher, assistant director of Safety and Security, said. “Our partnership with the Albert Einstein Healthcare System and Central High School [helps us] easily control crime.”

Gallagher described how the establishments in the immediate area work together in order to make the neighborhood safer. He attributed the idea of this initiative to Director of Security and Safety Arthur Grover and the Einstein Healthcare System.

In 2006, Philadelphia led big cities in murder rate. The 406 murders were a 7.7 percent increase from the year before, according to The Philadelphia Inquirer. Per 100,000 residents, 1,562 reported violent crimes in the same year – the highest in the nation. Dallas and Houston were next on the list with 1,206 and 1,169 reports respectively.

Last week, Philadelphia Police Chief Sylvester Johnson called on 10,000 African American men to attend a rally and training program Oct. 21 in the hopes of alleviating the crime rate. 44 percent of the city is black, but 80 percent of violent crimes were perpetrated by African Americans, according to an AHN article Sept. 14. Johnson hopes to curb the disproportionate crime rates. After the first quarter of the year, a 17 percent increase for 2007 was predicted by MSNBC. As of print, nearly 300 people were murdered thus far this year.

For this story, Collegian looked at homicides and shootings which occurred in and around about a one-quarter mile radius of the universities, based upon information provided by the police department and maps produced by the Inquirer.

scauvuzzos1@lasalle.edu