Thursday, April 3, 2008

The murder of Sean Patrick Conroy

Philadelphia police have made four more arrests in the death of Sean Patrick Conroy on a Center City subway platform.

That’s the good news.

Conroy has strong connections to Delaware County. He spent much of his youth in Upper Darby and attended Upper Darby High. His mom still lives in Lansdowne. On Tuesday 200 people packed St. Cyril’s Church in East Lansdowne for his funeral.

The bad news is that despite the arrests, police still have no inkling as to what was the motivation behind the attack on Conroy. Five young men are now in custody. Police are looking to arrest one more youth. The teens are all students at Simon Gratz High School. That’s where they were supposed to be when instead they confronted Conway on the El platform at 13th and Market streets in the middle of the afternoon. This is just blocks from City Hall.

Conway was the manager of the Starbucks at the nearby Marriott Hotel.

The 36-year-old didn’t actually suffer any big injuries during the confrontation, but it apparently threw him into respiratory distress.

Homicide Detective Mike Costello probably speaks for all of us.

“Quite frankly, it’s senseless,” Costello said. “It defies any meaning. We have no meaning why this occurred. We don’t believe it was a robbery. Despite the speculation there’s absolutely no indication it’s any kind of hate crime.”

Just a random killing by a group of teenagers in the middle of the afternoon in a crowded subway station.

This is what we’ve come to. Just flat-out chilling.

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