Med student dies after attack

A 25-year-old woman was taken off life support 24 hours after a fellow medical student allegedly beat her with a bat, police said.

Lea Sullivan’s parents pulled her off life support around 1 p.m. Monday at the very hospital where their 25-year-old daughter had been studying to become a doctor.

An hour-and-a-half later, the third-year medical student died from head injuries she suffered Sunday afternoon in a brutal baseball-bat attack, said Thomas Jefferson University Hospital spokesperson Jeff Baxt.

Justice played out quickly in the horrific crime.

On Monday morning, police had arrested Nader Ali, 26, at his parents’ Franklin Lakes, N.J., home, Sgt. Tim Cooney of South Detective Division said a few hours later at a press conference.

Police said they did not know the nature of the relationship between Sullivan and Ali, but Sullivan’s roommates told detectives the two were "acquaintances."

The two had been classmates at Jefferson, Baxt confirmed.

Ali "was a second-year medical student placed last year on medical leave of absence for extreme change in behavior," said Baxt.

Investigators don’t know why Ali allegedly clubbed Sullivan with a baseball bat around 1:45 p.m. Sunday outside Whole Foods at 929 South St., said Cooney.

Asked by a reporter if he thought Ali meant to kill Sullivan, the sergeant replied, "You don’t hit someone in the head with a baseball bat and not intend to kill them."

Another police source said the suspect wore a ski mask when he attacked Sullivan, according to witnesses at the scene.

The victim, who lived around the corner on Locust Street, had just walked out of Whole Foods when Ali approached from behind and bludgeoned her, Cooney said.

The victim fell to the ground, where the assailant struck her several more times in her head before escaping in a car parked near the store, the sergeant said. No one else was in the car, he added.

A medic took Sullivan to Jefferson in "very critical condition," said Cooney.

At least seven witnesses identified the male and got his license tag, Cooney said, adding that investigators were able to crack the case quickly because of the help they received from the public.

The next morning, Bergen County, N.J., police took Ali into custody and charged him with attempted murder, aggravated and simple assault, possession of an instrument of crime and reckless endangerment.

Yesterday, the suspect refused to be extradited to Philadelphia, where homicide detectives are expected to charge him with Sullivan’s murder.

Authorities will now move to force Ali’s extradition by obtaining a warrant.

Gunmen ambush victim

A young man was in guarded condition at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania after two men shot him around 5 p.m. last Thursday, police said.

The 18-year-old victim told investigators he had been walking on the 1600 block of South Etting Street when the pair approached and fired twice into his left thigh, said Detective Joe Chiaro of South Detectives.

Police had no motive or suspects earlier in the week.

To report information, call South Detectives at 215-686-3013.

Stabbed over a cigarette

Two thugs knifed a 38-year-old man in his groin after the victim put up a fight and refused to give them what they wanted — a cigarette, police said.

The incident happened around 8:30 p.m. Nov. 2 on the 500 block of McKean Street, said Detective Joe Chiaro of South Detectives.

The two approached the man and asked him for a smoke. When he told them no, the culprits went through his pockets anyway and then stabbed him in his groin, Chiaro said.

The thugs walked away empty-handed while the victim was taken to Jefferson in guarded condition.

To report information, call South Detectives at 215-686-3013.

Three officers injured in crash

Two police cruisers responding to separate emergency calls early Sunday slammed into each other, sending three officers to the hospital.

The collision happened around 2:40 a.m. at Seventh Street and Washington Avenue, said Sgt. George Golden of the Accident Investigation Division.

Seventeenth District Officer Colleen O’Meara was traveling east on Washington when she was dispatched to a scene, said the sergeant. At Seventh Street, she collided with another police cruiser operated by Third District Officer Michael Berkery and his partner, Scott Drissell, who were on their way to another scene, Golden said.

After colliding with Berkery’s cruiser, O’Meara’s vehicle sideswiped a Mazda that was stopped at a light at Seventh and Washington, the sergeant said.

The driver of that car, Mohamod Tunkara, 24, of the 2000 block of South Sixth Street, was not injured.

After hitting Tunkara’s car, O’Meara’s cruiser crashed into the fa�ade of 637 Washington Ave., Golden said.

All three officers were admitted to Jefferson. O’Meara suffered a fractured right ankle, Berkery, a broken collarbone, and Drissell, body pain.

The Accident Investigation Division is probing the collision.

Police seek more fugitives

Police officials have added four fugitives to their wildly successful Most Wanted list.

The new faces replace four other suspects who had been on the list but have since been arrested.

Jerron Rogers, 27, of the 1200 block of South 27th Street, is the only South Philly representative in the new group.

Rogers is wanted for a March 15 shooting on the 2000 block of Dickinson Street, said Capt. Charles Bloom of the Gun Permit and Tracking Unit, who heads the Most Wanted initiative.

Investigators believe the shooting was in retaliation for another incident.

Since the police department launched the initiative one month ago, six suspects have been nabbed — two of whom were in a citywide pipeline of fugitives that feeds the Most Wanted list, said Chief Inspector Joe Fox of the Detective Bureau.

Fox said he firmly believed that two of the fugitives surrendered due to unwanted attention of having been named to the Most Wanted list.

The chief inspector credited the media in part for getting the word out.

"The initiative is actually more successful than we had ever hoped," he said.

Anyone with information on a fugitive’s whereabouts is asked to call a 24-hour hotline: 215-683-WANT.

Man sentenced in burglaries

A local man who pleaded guilty to 15 counts of burglary and one count of attempted burglary on Sept. 21 was sentenced Tuesday.

Common Pleas Judge Pamela Dembe sentenced Walter Johnson, 20, of the 1800 block of Dickinson Street, to 50 weeks to 23 months in prison for the 15 counts of burglary. In addition, he received two years probation for the attempted burglary, said Assistant District Attorney Bridget Kirn.

Dembe also ordered Johnson to pay $30,000 in restitution and get his GED, the attorney said. In addition, he will get credit for time served, meaning he could be released as early as February.

Prosecutors had asked for eight to 16 years, Kirn said.

"It’s obviously a disappointing sentence because he really got less than a month for each crime he committed," the prosecutor said. "He confessed to 21 burglaries in South Philly, but he pleaded to 16 because it was only on those that we could get owners to come into court and testify."

Police said Johnson preyed on restaurants and shops along Passyunk Avenue and in the Point Breeze neighborhood from Aug. 20, 2003, to Feb. 12 of this year before finally being caught on the roof of Currency One check cashing on the 1300 block of Point Breeze Avenue.

The suspect’s method was to break in before establishments opened. Johnson netted very little cash from his spree, but caused significant damage by breaking cash registers, an ATM machine and change machines, according to court records. He also cut through sheet rock and broke windows and doors, Kirn said.

"He devastated an entire neighborhood. He was really a predator to these businesses," she added.