On March 23, at 2:32 pm, SEPTA police were patrolling the Market-Frankford concourse at 13th and Market when they observed a group of males punching another male. During the altercation, the victim, Sean Patrick Conroy, a 36-year-old white male, fell to the ground in respiratory distress. Convoy was transported to Thomas Jefferson University Hospital where he was pronounced dead at 3:09 pm.
Today the medical examiner ruled Convoy's death a homicide, the result of an asthma attack "brought on by blunt force trauma."
According to news reports, four male Simon Gratz High School students, skipped classes and attacked Conroy in the train station for no apparent reason. Robbery was ruled out as a motive.
Police have identified one student, Kinta Stanton, a 16-year-old black male from the 4900 block of North Smedley Street. Stanton has been arrested and will be charged as an adult with murder and criminal conspiracy.
Police are searching for the other suspects.
Update:
On April 2, police charged four more teens with Conroy's death: Arthur Alston, 16, black male; Rasheem Bell, 16, black male; Ameer Best, 17, black male; and Nashir Fisher, 16, black male. The four have been charged with murder and conspiracy.
In 2007, the city of brotherly love averaged more than one murder and four shootings a day. This site, by writer Kia Gregory, profiles the city's deadly violence, the people it threatens, and the people who fight desperately for solutions.
1 comment:
I just found your blog, and it looks great. I've always enjoyed your columns.
I was wondering what your perspective is about the way these teens are being talked about. I think it plays into the whole demonization of Black teenage boys, the way they are talked about as if they meant to cause his death. They are being held with no bail and charged with murder. Isn't this a little extreme?
It really scares me that I haven't heard any critique of that. It reminds me of the way the Central Park jogger case was talked about, and the media made up a whole new world -- "wilding" -- that supposedly Black teens were just going out for the purpose of terrorizing white people. And finally it comes out that she was raped by one person, and those teens were innocent. That didn't make the national news in the same way though.
Hope you're doing well.
Suzy Subways
Post a Comment