In Rhawnhurst, fear that it could have been worse

As shocking as Thursday morning's execution-style holdup was, the neighbors of Rhawnhurst could think of an even worse scenario.

If the attack on armored-car guards had happened just a few minutes earlier, the sidewalks would have been filled with children on their way to school, many people noted.

"It gives me goose bumps just to think about it," said Bella Vadarlis as she took her 11-month-old son out of his car seat and hurried inside with him.

Vadarlis lives on Bleigh Avenue, just behind the Wachovia Bank office on Bustleton Avenue at the Roosevelt Mall. A little after 8, a gunman killed two Loomis security guards as they made their morning stop at the bank.

Vadarlis said her father-in-law and uncle were enjoying their morning coffee outside when they heard the pop of more than six shots.

Just moments before, she said, students who attend Resurrection of Our Lord Elementary School had been on the west side of Bustleton.

"Kids walk by themselves here because it looks safe," Vadarlis said. "It's really scary, it's dangerous."

Within minutes of the shooting, police ordered a lockdown at four nearby schools: Resurrection, Northeast High School, Woodrow Wilson Middle School, and Rhawnhurst School.

Police feared that the attacker could be roving the neighborhood. Schools stayed in lockdown until 11:30 a.m. At Northeast High, several blocks from the scene, every door was guarded.

"We didn't tell them what the situation was," said Ed Monastra, an administrator at Northeast. "They didn't need to know. They knew it was external, not internal."

The killings rattled Rhawnhurst. Police cordoned off the block around the shooting site with yellow tape. Crowds watched as detectives marked off the scene before the bodies of the victims were removed and the blacktop hosed down by firefighters.

By noon, the neighborhood seemed to have slipped back into its routine.

"This neighborhood is not bad at all," said William Ortiz, a father of two who lives near Resurrection of Our Lord Roman Catholic Church.

Go just a block from the bustle of Cottman Avenue and Rhawnhurst has a different personality. It's a subdued walking community of broad streets, with brick-and-stone twins with sloping front yards and off-street parking in back.

Newer neighbors come from such countries as Russia, Brazil, China, Pakistan, India, Albania and Greece.

At lunchtime Thursday, the schoolyard at Resurrection was filled with the comforting sounds of shouts and laughter.

"Luckily, the kids handled it really well," said Joe Carroll, a fifth-grade teacher. He said the school has regular drills for lockdown situations. Thursday, there was no way to downplay that this was the real deal, especially with two television helicopters buzzing overhead.

"It's hard to tell them, 'Don't worry,' because it's so near," Carroll said. "It's upsetting, because of the brutality of something so close to 600 children."