Woman, 5 kids gassed from Chester MOVE

Chester police conducted their own siege of a MOVE house today at almost the same time that Philadelphia police were attacking the MOVE compound in the 6200 block of Osage Ave. in West Philadelphia.

A woman and five children left the Chester house at 602 McIlvaine Street,. after taking a five-minute tear gas bombardment at 6:15 a.m., according to Chester police Capt. Richard Conway. There were no injuries.

Conway said the woman was being detained by police until her identity could be verified. The children were taken to Crozer Chester Medical Center for observation, then placed in the care of the Delaware County Children and Youth Services Department, according to Conway.

Conway said a parts of a dog's body were found in a bucket at the rear of the house, along with a dozen dogs, and several dog pelts. He described the home as "putrid," "disgusting" and "littered with human and animal waste."

Police immediately began dismantling MOVE-erected barricades, shrubbery and debris in the yard of the house - "everything but the house itself," said Conway.

Conway said about 30 officers - Chester police and state troopers - surrounded the house at about 6 a.m. and ordered the residents out, announcing they had a search and seizure warrant for "certain individuals we believed may be residing inside the house."

Police also had a court order to check the inside of the house for possible city code violations and malnutrition of the children, Conway said. Nearby residents' had reported MOVE children picking food from neighborhood garbage cans, he said.

When the residents of the house did not respond to the order, police lobbed tear gas cannisters into the home and the woman and children walked out in about five minutes, Conway said.

No weapons were found inside, Conway said.

"Conditions in the house were just unbelievable. You wouldn't even keep an animal in a place like that," Conway said. He said there was a coal-burning stove and an illegal power hookup but no furniture.

Neighbors reacted negatively to the siege, claiming police routed good citizens.

"They never bothered nobody," said one elderly man who lived in back of the MOVE home. He refused to give his name.

Other neighbors described the MOVE members as "quiet, peace-loving people who kept to themselves." They said the MOVE members had lived in the house about four years and consisted mainly of the woman, about nine children, and occasionally a man.

Chester police, however, said their surveillance, begun last summer at the request of Philadelphia police, showed large numbers of MOVE adults at the house from time to time. Asked if he expected to find more MOVE members inside, Conway said: "We didn't know what we were going to find. Possibly, some came here at times from Philadelphia. It just so happens we lucked out with no injuries."