Pizza deliveryman killed in Phila. robbery

A pizza deliveryman was killed during a robbery Wednesday night in the Mantua section of the city, the second time this month that a deliveryman has died in a robbery.

Kouakou Jacques, 36, was shot once in the chest while making a delivery in the 4100 block of Aspen Street about 10 p.m. He was pronounced dead at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania.

Police have no witnesses and no suspects.

"Right now, we don't know how the events occurred," Capt. James Clark, commander of the Homicide Unit, said yesterday.

The take-out order had been made from a nearby pay phone, and the caller gave the address of an occupied home on Aspen, Clark said. The people who live in the home did not order food and were not involved in the shooting, he said.

There is an abandoned home next door, where the robber could have been hiding "to get the jump on him," Clark said.

Jacques, of Upper Darby, parked his car on Aspen and was approaching the home when he was shot and robbed.

Clark said he did not know how many suspects were involved or whether Jacques was shot before or after he was robbed.

Jacques worked for Accu Pizza, at 48th and Spruce Streets in West Philadelphia. A woman who answered the phone there yesterday said no one was available to talk about him.

Earlier this month, four teenagers were charged with murder after robbing a 60-year-old pizza deliveryman in West Oak Lane.

The four ambushed Jaime Orozco-Torres after he was lured to an abandoned building with a phony food order, police said.

He was struck at least once, and the teens stole his car. Orozco-Torres then had a heart attack and died.

Pizza deliverymen, who often carry cash, are frequent targets of robberies. District police captains often have their crime prevention officers discuss safety tips with deliverymen, said Lt. Frank Vanore, a police spokesman.

Police recommend that pizza shops use caller ID on their phones and call back the numbers to verify that the addresses are occupied homes.

Police also warn delivery drivers to be wary of darkened homes and abandoned buildings, Vanore said.

Anyone with information in the death of Jacques is being asked to call the Homicide Unit at 215-686-3334 or 3335.