Man sought in home-invasion attack on 81-year-old woman
The drug addicts looking for a fix on Boudinot Street near Kensington Avenue don't worry about the garbage, broken glass, rats and other hazards that fill the vacant lot across the street from Elizabeth Morini's rowhouse.
The drug addicts looking for a fix on Boudinot Street near Kensington Avenue don't worry about the garbage, broken glass, rats and other hazards that fill the vacant lot across the street from Elizabeth Morini's rowhouse.
"Day and night, they don't care. This is like a hospital right here," neighbor Harold Santos said, pointing out countless used syringes that litter the area.
Just before dawn yesterday, a man who police suspect is an addict grew desperate enough for a fix that he broke into Morini's Kensington home. He pounced on her as she slept in her bedroom and beat her with a flashlight as he demanded drugs and cash she didn't have, said Officer Tanya Little, a police spokeswoman.
But the 81-year-old Morini was tougher than she looked. She returned the fight, pounding on her attacker with a chair leg and chasing him, empty-handed, from the two-story, red-brick home where she has lived alone since her husband died last summer.
Police now are seeking the attacker, described as a man of thin build, about 5 feet 7 inches tall, who was wearing dark clothing. He made off with about $80 in cash.
Morini was listed in critical but stable condition at Temple University Hospital with facial fractures and head injuries after the 6:25 a.m. incident, Little said.
Police suspect that the thug broke into Morini's home through a rear window by pushing in an air conditioner, Little said.
"She's a nice lady - like a grandmother to all of us," said Santos, 27, who has known "Miss Elizabeth" for the 16 years he has lived on Boudinot Street near Auburn. "There's so much crime here. It's really violent, so in a way, this does not surprise me."
Santos said he'd been trying to persuade city officials to condemn and clean up the lot where the addicts congregate, as well as to help him start a Town Watch on the block. But government bureaucracy, as well as the reluctance of some neighbors, have thwarted his efforts, he said.
"Some of the neighbors are the ones using drugs, so they don't want this [drug haven] to go away," Santos said.
Santos bought a vacant rowhouse next door to Morini's in hopes of renovating it - with the help of the neighboring Roca de Vida (Rock of Life) church - into an after-school facility where neighborhood kids can get homework help, academic tutoring and mentoring.
Neighbors said their efforts to revitalize the area and free it of the addicts, dealers and prostitutes who plague it have met little success.
"They harass me. They want me to move out because they want to put drugs out here," neighbor Rosa Feliciano said of the thugs she encounters daily outside her home. "One time I told them I don't want no drugs here, and a guy told me: 'I blow up your house if you call 9-1-1.' "
Feliciano, 58, works as a private security guard and said she doesn't scare easily.
She pointed out people she identified as dealers and troublemakers strolling past, and said: "I have one day when I was born and one day when I die, and God knows when that is."
Tipsters can contact East Detectives at 215-686-3243. *
Staff writer Christine Olley contributed to this report.
