Three students surrender in Old City mob attack

Three Mastery Charter School students who allegedly beat a man near Independence Hall during an afternoon attack last month turned themselves in to authorities Wednesday, police said.

The students, who have not been named because of their ages, were identified through surveillance footage that captured the July 29 attack, police said. The assault occurred hours before a group of teens beat and robbed several people in Center City.

The footage shows six teens, some wearing backpacks, walking north on Fourth Street, just below Walnut. They came upon a 36-year-old man walking south.

The man tried to let the group pass, but one of the teens suddenly sucker punched him in the head. Two others joined in punching and kicking him.

A witness yelled and the students fled. The victim suffered a fractured jaw.

"Based on our investigation, we issued three arrest warrants, said Lt. Patrick Doherty of Central Detectives. "We notified the parents as soon as they were issued. The parents have been cooperative."

The students face aggravated assault and other charges, police said. None have prior arrests, police said. All are eighth- and ninth-graders enrolled at Mastery's Lenfest campus on Fourth and Chestnut.

The students had completed their final summer school session about an hour and half before the attack and had been hanging out, said Mastery CEO Scott Gordon.

Mastery, a local nonprofit charter operator, has won high praise - including from President Obama and Oprah Winfrey, among others - for its record of turning around violent and low-performing schools. More than 90 percent of Lenfest students go onto college, Gordon said.

"We hold our students to high expectations and will not tolerate this behavior," he said .

All six of the students involved in the incident face expulsion hearings, he said.

The school is taking steps to repair its relationship with its community, Gordon said.

Next Monday morning, Lenfest students plan to gather at Fourth and Market and hand out flowers and "thank you" notes.

"As a community, our students will step [up] and play a lead role this year to stem the tide of violence in our city," the notes read.

Students are also planning neighborhood beautification projects and other outreach efforts for the fall, Gordon said.

Lenfest sophomore Jazmine Smith, 14, of Southwest Philadelphia, said she and her classmates were shocked and "felt a deep feeling of disappointment" over the attack.

"When something like this happens, it makes us look bad," said Smith, who said she hopes to study pediatric anesthesiology at an Ivy League college. "It's the total opposite portrayal of who we are as a school and student body."

Staff writer Sam Wood contributed to this article.