Police Investigate Brutal Attack On Pizza Delivery Driver In SW Philly
By Dan Wing and Rahel Solomon
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Police are searching for two suspects after a pizza delivery driver was kidnapped and shot in Southwest Philadelphia on Monday night.
Police say the 35-year-old driver, Gafar Surah, was getting food out of his car on Beaumont Avenue a little before 11 p.m., when two men approached him from behind and forced him back into his car at gunpoint.
The suspects took the driver to the area of Warrington and Cobbs Creek, where they took $60 and made the driver kneel in the street.
After threatening to run him over, Lt. John Walker says one of the suspects shot the victim in the back of the head.
"Finally he collapses," Walker says.
Police say they found the victim and took him to an area hospital, where he was listed in critical condition. On Tuesday afternoon, officials said the victim was in stable condition.
Police found the driver's car about five minutes from where he was shot, but they are still searching for the men that robbed him. The car was parked, but still running when found.
Police describe the two suspects as two light-skinned black males in their mid-20's. They say that one was wearing a black shirt and blue jeans while the other was wearing a black hooded sweatshirt and blue jeans.
The victim's family told Eyewitness News that the victim was a man who worked hard, but did not have a lot.
"You could hear, that whoever it was, they were in extreme pain," said neighbor Dwayne Green. "It was constant screaming."
Surah's cousin, Alidou Alassale, says that the delivery driver pleaded with the two suspects.
A fellow delivery driver says he has been struggling to understand why the robbery took such a violent turn. "I mean, ya'll got the car. You got the money. Why would you shoot him?"
Family of the victim says that he is originally from West Africa and does not have much. What he does have, he sends back to his family.
"We are here just to survive because we come from rough family background," Surah's cousin said. "So, we just came here to make money to feed our family. That is it. That's why we are here. Nothing else."
