Seeking police shield

Carla Novello and three friends were sitting on the corner of 19th and Porter streets, just around the block from her Girard Estate home, three weeks ago, when four teenage males approached and asked if they had a cigarette.

One of the four girls was chatting on her cell phone when one of the four boys — described as being 15 to 17 — stuck a gun in her face and announced a holdup, recounted Novello, 18.

The gunman’s accomplices then patted down the girls and went through their pockets.

When the harrowing ordeal was over, the young robbers ran off with jewelry, cell phones and purses.

"I was petrified. I was in shock," Novello said.

In another incident last year, two gun-wielding males in their 20s jumped out of a car and robbed a 15-year-old local boy and his teen friends of their jackets at 19th and Ritner. The victims were on their way to a neighborhood store.

Now, Novello and nearly a dozen other teens, female and male, say they’re afraid to walk around their normally safe, upscale neighborhood.

"You feel nervous to go out at night," said Dior Novello, Carla’s younger sister. "It’s the beginning of the school year and you want to go out at night with your friends but you’re scared."

Galvanized by a recent string of robberies and assaults in Girard Estate, nearly 300 residents converged outside the library at 20th and Shunk streets last Wednesday to call attention to their safety concerns and demand more protection.

The neighborhood’s representative group, Girard Estate Area Residents, also organized the evening rally to show support for the First District police.

Angry residents carried various signs, two of which read, "Protect people, not parking spaces" — alluding to the parking initiatives granted some neighbors of the stadium complex — and "Police protection now, not after we are murdered."

And the residents had company: Council President Anna Verna; Councilmen-at-Large Jim Kenney and Frank Rizzo Jr.; state Rep. Robert Donatucci and his brother, Register of Wills Ron Donatucci, who hail from the neighborhood; a representative from Sen. Vince Fumo’s office; Police Commissioner Sylvester Johnson and Inspectors Bill Colarulo and Steve Johnson, and First District Capt. Carmen Vuotto.

At times, the gathering got so heated with angry chants and interruptions that political leaders and police addressing the crowd had to step back and wait for things to cool down.

At one point a woman yelled, "Where is the mayor? Doesn’t he care about our neighborhood?" and another resident snapped, "Do they have to wait for more killing to get more cops?"

GEAR president Jody Della Barba and many other residents pointed fingers at youths from other neighborhoods, claiming they were coming into Girard Estate and "terrorizing our children, our elderly and our women."

The protesters said black youths have been victimizing Girard Estate’s teens, most of whom are white.

But police and crime statistics for Girard Estate don’t support most of the residents’ allegations.

White teenagers are not the only victims, noted the First District’s Vuotto. The victims have ranged in age from 11 to 75 and are both male and female and black and white, the captain said.

And the incidents haven’t been racially motivated but "crimes of opportunity," said Vuotto.

"There is no indication that any of the robberies or assaults were racially motivated. There were no statements made by the perpetrators [to the victims]," he added. "The only way I can declare something racial is if I can show racial motivations — slurs made, for example."

Many residents have urged police to "stop" black youths they claim don’t "belong" in their neighborhood.

"I don’t want my kids killed. They don’t belong here," shouted one woman at the rally.

Police cannot stop someone without probable cause, Vuotto explained.

"We have to predicate our stops on suspicious behavior. We need a reason to stop someone. If somebody is going up and down the street looking into cars, for example," South Police Division Inspector Steve Johnson told the crowd.

In recent months, police in the area have stopped 71 individuals — many of whom were youths breaking curfew — and 84 cars, added the captain.

Since August, Girard Estate residents have reported 11 robberies, 14 simple assaults and six aggravated assaults in all, police said.

Investigators are examining a pattern of incidents in which teen males approached their victims either on bike or foot and robbed them at gunpoint, confirmed Vuotto. Of the 11 robberies, only three victims were juveniles and in another, the victim did not want to prosecute, the captain said.

Of the 14 simple assaults, three did not want to prosecute and six involved known offenders, said Vuotto.

Among the six aggravated assaults, one victim was a juvenile whose parents did not want to prosecute, he noted. In that case, the 11-year-old victim claimed an unknown black man held a gun to his head and told him to stay away from his son.

Two of the aggravated assaults were domestic cases and one was a home invasion.

But investigators are making headway, said Vuotto, as five arrests have been made in the last couple of weeks. Two arrests came before last Wednesday’s rally, while that evening, police apprehended three females and are looking for a fourth suspect in connection with a Sept. 26 assault on two 15-year-old girls on the 2100 block of Shunk.

The foursome jumped the pair from behind and started punching and beating them, Vuotto said. The victims sustained minor bruises.

Police charged a 14-year-old from the 2600 block of Wolf Street and two 13-year-olds from the 2800 blocks of Cantrell and Winton streets with simple assault and related offenses.

Last Thursday, police arrested two more teens in connection with a Sept. 30 incident on the 1500 block of Moyamensing Avenue, in which one of the assailants pointed a gun at a 9-year-old boy’s head. (See Police Report.) Investigators are looking into whether those two suspects may be responsible for more robberies in the area, the captain said.

In the meantime, police presence has been stepped up in Girard Estate.

"There are dedicated police patrols to the Girard Estate neighborhood. These are teams of officers assigned to the area who stay within neighborhood boundaries," said Vuotto. "I feel that we can police and cover the area as best we can."