Temple student shot and wounded outside frat party

A Temple University student was shot outside a party early Saturday after the shooter was denied entry to the fraternity house where it was being held and a fight ensued, authorities said.

The student, whom the school said was a 22-year-old undergraduate, was shot once in the left thigh and hip shortly before 1 a.m. on the 1500 block of North 17th Street. The student's identity was not revealed.

He was taken to Hahnemann University Hospital, treated, and released, said Temple spokesman Brandon Lausch.

Authorities said the shooter approached several people standing outside the fraternity house, which police did not identify, and made an effort to go in. There was a discussion about whether he was a student, and that exchange grew heated, Lausch said.

A 20-year-old male witness was standing outside talking to the victim as the conversation unfolded, Philadelphia police said. When the shooter was told he could not go in because he was not a student, police said, he then demanded, "Give me everything you got."

The would-be robber then pulled his shirt up, and the witness saw a silver handgun in the man's waistband, police said.

The victim suddenly charged at the gunman, police said, and the man pulled out the gun and fired a shot.

Nothing was taken, the witness told police.

Police described the gunman as a black man around 5-foot-8 or 5-foot-9, of thin build and between 35 and 40 years old, with a dark complexion and no facial hair. He was wearing blue jeans, a red hoodie, and red beanie hat, police said.

The shooting occurred within Temple's police patrol borders, which it expanded this school year to cover about 25 percent more area than before. The school announced in early September that it would begin patrolling west to 18th Street, between Susquehanna Avenue and Jefferson Street, past its previous border of 16th Street.

Saturday's shooting occurred less than a block from the limit of the expanded border. It was the first Temple-related shooting - of a student, staff, or faculty member - since the expansion, a spokesman said.

Temple's decision to expand its patrol zone comes as more and more students live around campus, especially in the area west of Broad Street, Charles J. Leone, the head of Temple's Campus Safety Services, told The Inquirer when the school announced the move.

"At least 4,000 to 5,000 are in that western area now," he said.

"Particularly on the west side, patrols are frequent," Brandon Lausch, a Temple spokesman, said Saturday. City police, university police, and private security employees on bicycles patrol the area, he said.

Lausch said the school could not specify what time a police or security officer was last in that area before the shooting occurred because "there are too many variables."

Since the shooting, the school has been in contact with area residents, Lausch said, and is increasing attention to the area.

"There's not a shortage of resources in that area," he said, "and we'll divert patrols and attention for as long as necessary."

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