Ramsey: Teen Suspects In Brick Attack Will Learn 'It's Not Funny'
By Jim Melwert
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) – Philadelphia police are asking for the public's help finding a group of teenagers who they say attacked a Temple University student with a brick.
READ: 4 Suspects Sought In Brick Attack In North Philadelphia
Police have put out a video of the teenaged suspects (click here to view video). Investigators say they're the girls who, on Friday evening around 6pm, harassed a Temple University student and her boyfriend as they walked on 17th Street, then hit the Temple student in the face with a brick.
She needed surgery to repair her teeth.
"It's kind of like what we saw with the phenomenon of the so-called 'flash mobs' a few years ago," according to police commissioner Charles Ramsey. "You get groups of kids together, they do things that in some cases they wouldn't otherwise normally do. But, there's no excuse for it. (If) we find (who did it), we're going to bring them in and deal with them accordingly."
Commissioner Ramsey says they work with Temple University police to patrol the areas just off campus. And he says that whether the kids in the video realize it or not, they are facing very serious charges.
"We're going to charge them. If we find them, we will charge them. There's no question about that. They'll find out very quickly it's not funny," Ramsey said.
Temple University also sent out a warning to students last night, several days after Friday's incident, referencing "multiple off-campus assaults on Temple students west of Main Campus in the area of N. 17th Street" and also an attempted purse-snatching by a pair of juvenile girls.
The e-mail from Temple goes on to say that the university is assisting the investigation by reviewing surveillance video in the area.
