Battle at the Bridge
Off-duty cop injured in shoot-out at theater near Penn's campus
By DAVID GAMBACORTA
Philadelphia Daily News
Forget the big screens - the real action at the Bridge movie theater last night was in the busy lobby, where an off-duty Harrisburg cop traded gunfire with a masked robber, police said.
The frightening tale began to unfold in University City shortly before 7 p.m., when
about a dozen people were waiting in line to buy tickets for "Sherlock Holmes" and "The Book of Eli."
In marched the thief, a 5-foot-8 black man in a dark hooded sweatshirt, who hid the lower half of his face behind a mask, police said.
The crook pulled out a handgun and robbed Bridge employees who were manning the box office, said Philadelphia police Chief Inspector Scott Small.
Within seconds, an off-duty state Capitol policeman yelled out, "Freeze! Police!" a police source said.
The startled robber, who was about 10 feet from the cop, opened fire, wounding the officer once in the left shoulder.
Small said the officer returned fire, but it was unclear if he wounded the masked gunman, who fled on foot.
A 22-year-old Drexel student who had been waiting in line for tickets was also shot. Small said that man, whose name was not released, was hit once in the left leg.
Small said both the 42-year-old cop and the bystander were listed in stable condition at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania.
About an hour after the shoot-out, Crime Scene Unit investigators examined blood stains outside the Bridge, on Walnut Street near 40th.
Small said lab tests would determine if the blood was that of the masked robber.
All six of the Bridge's theatres were playing movies and packed with patrons when the shooting occurred, Small noted.
A handful of people who emerged from the theater afterward appeared dazed from the ordeal.
"There were a lot of bullets in the lobby," said Emma Kosowsky, who was inside the Bridge when shots rang out.
"It was surreal. I didn't realize what was happening."
Claire Coots said she was in a small media room adjacent to the lobby, watching previews with about eight others, "When all of a sudden I heard shouting. I looked out and saw the spark of the gun."
Coots said she dived under some nearby seats for protection.
"I always go there. Now I'll have to find another movie theater to go to," she said.
At the Fresh Grocer store across the street from the Bridge, Katherine Martin sold boxes of Girl Scouts cookies on a small table. She said she was unfazed by the shooting, but noted that many University of Pennsylvania students "seemed really upset. Especially the ones who don't live in the city."
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One of the girls i'm dating teaches at Penn. Too bad she wasn't there, the cop would have had some backup. She carries an HK P7 9mm and is a crack shot- left
or right handed! Oh, right...universities are "gun free" zones.
