The area around Temple University has always been perceived by locals and students as unsafe. This fact has been covered by local and national media for years, but it seems the issue is reaching a breaking point. Temple students, staff, and more notably Temple parents have been publicly outspoken about crime at Temple ever since Temple Senior Sam Collington was tragically killed just off-campus in November 2021. According to reports, Collington was held up at gunpoint by a 17-yr-old gunmen during a carjacking. During the robbery, the gunmen opened fire, fatally shooting Collington. The juvenile offender who killed Sam had a long juvenile rap sheet of violent crime.
This report summarizes the violent crime crisis at Temple University and the Universities repose, or lack thereof. Philly Crime Update obtained exclusive video of a murder that occurred at Broad and Cecil B Moore, the main hub of the university.
Temple University responded to this tragedy by creating a “Temple Task Force on Violence Reduction“. The panel did not include a single law enforcement expert and has not published any initiatives or findings whatsoever to date. Temple also held “parent forums” but only invited specific parents to private conversations.
In the months following Sam’s death, the Director of Public Safety, Charles Leone abruptly resigned after over 30 years with the University. After a national search, Temple hired Dr. Jennifer Griffin, a former Delaware State Police Captain to run the police and public safety departments. The new hire got off to a rocky start when she refereed to her police officers as “University Safety Officers” and laid the groundwork for rebranding the police department, opting instead to call it a “public safety” department. The police union at Temple, The Temple University Police Association, lashed out at this misclassification saying the statements creates “unnecessary confusion and unreasonable occupational safety hazards”.
This public disagreement between police and temple administration, paired with copious amounts of violent crime at Temple has students and parents worried that nothing has been accomplished almost 1 year since Sam Collington was murdered. Parents have resorted to buying their own private security and fortifying their students windows with bullet-resistant plexiglass.
Philly Crime Update started the investigation by going to the City Controllers Gun Violence Dashboard. We found approximately 25 shootings occurred in the Temple area. Temple advertises what they call a “Temple Police Patrol Zone”, which encompasses all of main campus and the areas just off campus that have a high concentration of Temple students living in apartments. Three of those shootings were fatal. A 39-yr old man was shot and killed at Broad and Susquehanna. Just feet from Freshman dorm White Hall and SEPTA’s Broad St line subway. The second fatal shooting was just down the block at 15th and Susquehanna when a 15-yr-old boy was shot and killed after leaving school. The third was a fatal shooting at Broad and Cecil B Moore (see video below). The year 2021 saw approximately 20 shootings, 1 fatal, at 16th and Susquehanna.
Sam Collington was the only student harmed in those shootings but shootings outside the Freshman dorm and luxury dorm Morgan Hall are making people concerned for their overall safety. On July 22, 2022, a man was ambushed in broad daylight in front of Temple’s Morgan Hall. The man was shot multiple times in the head and laid dead on the ground for students to see. It’s unlikely that traumatic scene is a normal part of the “college experience”.
These shootings affects temple and its students overall feeling of safety, although they are rarely injured, that’s not to say it can’t happen. Stray bullets flying around campus and into Temple dorm rooms is a reason for serious concern. But Temple students are also being targeted by violent criminals for gunpoint robberies, home invasions, and carjackings. On Sept 20th, a group of Temple students were robbed when a man with a gun forced his way into their apartment and took a bag full of electronics. On October 1st 2022, 8 Temple students were robbed at gunpoint outside of their house, one of those victims was placed into a headlock, chocked, and dragged down the block for a cellphone.
With no slow-down in violent crime in sight, and no real solutions in place at Temple University, it’s a fair logical inference to assume the targeted violent crime victimization of Temple students will continue unfettered. Philly Crime Update took a deep dive into crime data from the City of Philadelphia for the Temple area. We found at least 70 instances of violent crime victimization in the Temple area so far in 2022.
We’ll list the documented instances of violent crime at Temple that we found during our investigation dating back to the death of Sam Collington
Jan. 1 2022- 16th & Cecil B Moore MASS SHOOTING 5 people shot
Jan. 1 2022- 2000 N Gratz gunpoint robbery
Jan. 3 2022- 2200 N Broad HOMICIDE by shooting
Jan. 5 2022- 1500 N 18th St shots fired
Jan. 7th 2022- 17th & Diamond gunpoint robbery
Jan. 7th 2022- 1500 Sydenham gunpoint carjacking
Jan 12th 2022- Carlisle & Venango gunpoint carjacking
Feb. 1st 2022- 1500 N Broad Shooting, 1 male victim
Feb. 10th 2022- 1700 Fontain St gunpoint robbery
Mar. 12th 2022- 10th & Montgomery Robbery
Mar. 12th 2022- 1900 N 18th St carjacking
Mar. 12th 2022- 16th & Susquehanna gunpoint robbery
Mar. 12th 2022- 1600 Edgely St- shots fired
Mar. 18th 2022- N Broad & Cecil B Moore Ave- Double shooting
Mar. 19th 2022- 1800 W Diamond- 2 people shot & shots fired at police
Mar. 21st 2022- 1700 W Norris- robbery
Mar. 21st 2022- N Broad & Susquehanna- shots fired
Mar. 30th 2022- 1432 W Master- Homicide by shooting
Mar. 30th 2022- N Broad & Polett Walk robbery
Mar. 31st 2022- 18th & Susquehanna Ave shots fired
Apr. 1st 2022- 18th & Diamond St, shots fired
Apr. 4th 2022- 15th & Susquehanna Homicide by shooting
Apr. 4th 2022- 3500 Germantown Ave shots fired
Apr. 5th 2022- 1700 Fontain armed robbery
Apr. 5th 2022- 1600 Fontaim armed robbery
Apr. 5th 2022- 18th & Cecil B Moore Ave gunpoint robbery
Apr. 10th 2022- 13th & Susquehanna Ave shots fired
Apr. 11th 2022- 2000 N Gratz gunpoint robbery
Apr. 12th 2022- 1955 N 9th St shooting 1 male shot
Apr. 12th 2022- 3400 N Broad St shots fired
Apr. 13th 2022 – N Broad & Girard Ave robbery
Apr. 13th 2022- N Broad & Cecil B Moore Ave robbery
Apr. 19th 2022- N Broad & Susquehanna Ave gunpoint robbery
Apr. 22nd 2022- 11th & Cecil B Moore Double shooting
Apr. 28th 2022- 1700 Fontain St shooting w/ rifle rounds
Apr. 29th 2022- 16th & Susquehanna shooting. 1 male shot
Apr. 30th 2022- 16th & Diamond St stabbing
May. 1st 2022- 1300 W Ontario shots fired and gunpoint carjacking
May 2nd 2022- 17th & Jefferson shots fired
May 12th 2022- 1600 N Bouvier St gunpoint robbery
May 18th 2022- 1500 N Bouvier MASS SHOOTING 5 SHOT
May 27th 2022- 1400 Willington Shots fired
May 28th 2022- 9th & Susquehanna Ave- shots fired
May 30th 2022- 17th & Oxford triple shooting, 1 killed
Jun. 4th 2022- N Broad & Susquehanna Ave 1 shot
Jun. 7th 2022- 1200 N 13th St Shooting
Jun. 13th 2022- N Broad & Susquehanna robbery
Jun. 13th 2022- 1722 W Norris robbery
Jun. 22nd 2022- 17th & Cecil B Moore robbery
Jul. 5th 2022- 17th & Oxford shooting
Jul. 17th 2022- 17th & Berks robbery
Jul. 22nd 2022- N Broad & Cecil B Moore Ave Homicide by shooting
Jul. 25th 2022- 3600 N 15th St shooting
Jul. 25th 2022- 1700 N 16th St shooting. 1 male shot
Aug. 1st 2022- 1501 N Broad gunpoint robbery
Aug. 8th 2022-2100 N 18th St gunpoint robbery
Aug. 15th 2022- 17th & Jefferson gunpoint carjacking
Aug. 17th 2022- 18th & Berks st shooting. 1 male shot
Aug. 29th 2022- N Broad & Allegheny St. 1 male shot
Sept. 1st 2022- N Broad & Allegheny St gunpoint robbery
Sept. 3rd 2022- N Broad & Tioga st shots fired
Sept. 15th 2022- 2100 N Broad St. 1 male victim shot
Sept. 19th 2022- 2034 N Broad st gunpoint robbery
Sept. 21st 2022- 1500 Sydenham St gunpoint home invasion robbery
Sept. 22nd 2022- 1500 N 13th St. female juvenile shot
Oct. 1st 2022-18th & Edgley st, gunpoint robbery, 8 temple students robbed
Oct. 4th 2022- 3500 N 13th St- 1 male shot
Oct. 4th 2022- N Broad & Venango St. 1 male shot
Oct. 8th 2022- 17th & Norris robbery
Oct. 10th 2022- 17th & Cecil B Moore. 1 male shot
Oct. 11th 2022- 1700 block of N 16th st. 1 male shot
Shortly after we asked for tips and videos of the crime crisis at Temple we received a video from an anonymous source of the July 22nd, 2022 broad day light murder on Temple’s campus at Broad and Cecil B Moore. Temples bookstore is just to the north and Temples Morgan Hall residence dorm tower is just to the east.
CAUTION: THE BELOW VIDEO MAY BE DISTURBING TO SOME VIEWERS