Harrison shooting case a mystery

Marvin Harrison and Dwight Dixon came from the same North Philadelphia neighborhood just north of Girard College, but were dealt dramatically different hands in life.

Harrison, 36, a star wide receiver at Roman Catholic High School, struck it rich in the NFL, where he is in the fifth year of a seven-year $67 million contract with the Indianapolis Colts.

Dixon, 32, ran into trouble with the law, was convicted of theft at the age of 18, and was sentenced to five to 10 years in prison for a 2000 drug-possession conviction. His record, which lists five aliases, includes arrests for stealing, drugs and firearms possession.

On April 29, the incongruous worlds of the football star and the ex-convict collided outside an auto-repair garage that Harrison owns on the 2500 block of Thompson Street.

According to police, Dixon was shot with a handgun that belonged to Harrison, the culmination of a two-week feud that began when Dixon was thrown out of the Playmakers bar, which Harrison owns in Fairmount.

But more than five months later, nobody has been charged with shooting Dixon. The case is "still under investigation," Cathie Abookire, the district attorney's spokeswoman, said yesterday.

Rather, it is Dixon who faces criminal charges in the case - accused of making false statements about the shooting when police initially approached him.

"I don't think he was completely forthcoming at the time of the incident," said Lt. Frank Vanore, police spokesman.

Dixon, whose name became public only when he filed a Sept. 2 suit seeking $100,000 in damages from Harrison, was charged two days after the shooting with filing a false report to police who were called to investigate how he had ended up at Lankenau Hospital with a gunshot wound.

Dixon initially told police that he had been shot in West Philadelphia, Vanore said. But when detectives found no evidence of that shooting, they linked him to the gunplay outside Harrison's repair shop, called Chuckie's Garage.

Dixon then admitted to detectives that he had been shot in North Philadelphia, Vanore said. His trial is scheduled for Nov. 17.

The shooting remains shrouded in mystery. Police said early in the investigation that Harrison, who has cooperated with police, was not a suspect.

"It's still an open investigation," said Vanore, who said Central Detectives had turned their findings over to District Attorney Lynne M. Abraham's office.

According to Dixon's sketchy version of events, outlined in his four-page lawsuit, Harrison pulled the trigger - or at least it was Harrison's gun that fired the bullet that struck him.

Dixon's mother, who was contacted at the West Philadelphia home that Dixon lists as his address, said her son believed that the justice system had treated Harrison favorably because of his stature.

"Marvin's allowed to pursue his lucrative career, while they locked up my son for lying," said Dixon's mother, who asked that her name not be used because she fears retaliation from Harrison and his "handlers."

Dixon's attorney, Robert M. Gamburg, did not return a telephone call yesterday.

Authorities have been circumspect about what happened April 29.

Police received a call about a shooting between 5 and 6 p.m., but found no victim. They were given a description of a car that fled the scene, and police issued an alert for that vehicle.

About 10 p.m., authorities at Lankenau Hospital reported to police that a gunshot victim had arrived. Dixon initially was not cooperative and said he had been shot in West Philadelphia, but police could find no evidence to substantiate that.

Authorities noticed that the car that had taken Dixon to the hospital matched the description of the vehicle that fled the shooting in North Philadelphia. That vehicle was impounded.

Police said they had recovered bullets and casings at the scene in North Philadelphia. When they asked Harrison for his gun, "he freely surrendered it to us" at the auto-repair shop, said one official. Ballistic tests matched the handgun, an FN Five-seveN, a 5.7mm Belgian semiautomatic.

Police said they also had recovered a projectile from another gun, which has not been found.

If Harrison is not a suspect, police would not say if he has explained how his gun was involved in a shooting, or who may have had access to it.

Harrison, who sat out 11 games last season with a knee injury but has caught 17 passes for 164 yards in four games this year, has ducked questions from reporters. He told teammates this summer that he had not been involved in the shooting.

His Philadelphia attorney, Daniel J. Hart, did not return a call yesterday for comment.

Abraham's spokeswoman, Abookire, also declined to comment.

"We're not going to have anything more to say about Harrison or what might or might not be connected to him," she said.