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Police seek help in identifying suspect in Temple shooting

Police who patrol the Temple University campus are accustomed to dealing with occasional crimes, even gunpoint robberies like a string of stickups committed last year near several dorms.

Police who patrol the Temple University campus are accustomed to dealing with occasional crimes, even gunpoint robberies like a string of stickups committed last year near several dorms.

But this week's shooting of 23-year-old Mohan Varughese, a Penn State Abington student who was visiting his girlfriend at Temple when he was killed in a robbery gone bad, was far from ordinary.

Varughese, of Bustleton, was sitting on the steps of his girlfriend's North Camac Street house Monday afternoon, a few blocks from campus, when a man approached with a gun and demanded the keys to Varughese's Kawasaki motorcycle. When Varughese hesitated, police said, the man shot him twice, then fled without taking the bike.

Generally, crime around the Temple campus is on the decline, said Capt. Branville Bard, head of the 22d Police District, where the school is located. But the school still draws thieves who lurk on the outskirts of the campus, he said.

"People look at Temple, like other university areas, as having a lot of potential victims for theft," Bard said. "You expect to see some of that. But this was just pointless and tragic. It makes no sense."

No arrests have been made in the killing of Verughese, who studied psychology and would have graduated Friday.

Police are searching for a dark-skinned African-American man in his early 20s. He is said to be about 5-foot-10, thin, with a teardrop tattoo under his left eye. The man also has several tattoos on his upper chest and neck, and was last seen wearing a black hooded sweatshirt and black sweatpants with a white stripe.

Capt. James Clark of the homicide unit said police were asking residents who live near the campus to help identify the shooter.

"We believe he lives in the neighborhood," Clark said. "All someone needs to do is pick up the phone. We'll do the rest."

Temple and its area are patrolled by school police, who work closely with city police. School and city police officers meet weekly to discuss crime patterns and decide which areas are most in need of attention, said Temple spokesman Raymond Betzner.

"We are constantly changing and modifying patrols," he said.

In December, when three students were robbed at gunpoint within an hour on West Dauphin and Norris Streets, the school beefed up security in that area.

Betzner and Bard said that the Varughese shooting appeared to have been an isolated incident, and that since the edges of the campus are already heavily patrolled, no specific changes had been made in policing.

"It's just a horrible thing to have happened," Betzner said. "We send our deepest sympathies out to his family, his friends at Penn State, and his friends at Temple."

Anyone with information is asked to call the homicide unit at 215-686-3334.