Owner questions "shootout" at his Phila. motel despite video

PHILADELPHIA - While police are investigating a reported shooting at a Philadelphia motel, the establishment's owner told CBS Philly that he doesn't think the crime actually occurred.

"All of our guests are very nice," Anthony Uzzo, owner of the Roosevelt Inn in Philadelphia, told the station by phone. He said he had his doubts that the supposed shootout actually occurred. On March 31, police responded to reports of gunfire and men with firearms chasing each other through the halls of the building.

According to the station, there are 48 cameras at the Roosevelt Inn. Several of them picked up the strange scene, which took place just after midnight, as an unidentified man appears to be chasing two others around the motel. Two of the three men have what appeared to be guns, and at one point, one of the men looks like he sticks out his gun and fires down the hall.

"They were running around after each other and they were smiling and it looked like it was a staged kind of thing," Uzzo told CBS Philly. "You don't run after each other with guns and smile and laugh while you're shooting at each other." He suggested that pellet guns or blanks may have been used.

CBS Philly reports that police are sticking to their story. While officers would not confirm whether any bullet holes were found by investigators, they did say that the handguns seen in the video were authentic.

Uzzo reportedly allowed CBS Philly to walk the hallways where the suspects were seen on camera. While there were no signs of any bullet holes, the station noted that any damage could have been fixed in the 10 days since the reported shooting.

Even though Uzzo denies the shooting, he acknowledged that the incident has his staff concerned. "I don't think this should have occurred," he told CBS Philly. "That's why we called the police and asked them to investigate."