Report: Robbery of Temple Students Was Done in Retaliation

The Daily News reports today that the Temple students robbed in a home invasion were targeted over a previous beef with a neighbor.

The robbery, cops say, happened Sunday night on the 1800 block of North 18th Street. Cops say two men with handguns pistol-whipped a resident who was having a cigarette on the front steps — then came into the house, zip tied the hands of at least six residents and robbed the home of cell phones, laptops, speakers, video games and wallets.

But today the Daily News reports it was not a random assault. A Temple official, speaking to the paper anonymously, said the bandits were targeting a student who has been in frequent arguments with neighborhood residents who aren’t Temple students. Just about a week ago, the student got into a fight with a neighbor who doesn’t attend Temple and kicked him out of a party. “You can see him hanging out with the neighborhood crowd all the time, being loud and making a spectacle of his presence there,” the Temple official told the paper.

A 20-year-old man who lives at the house was pistol-whipped repeatedly once the gunmen were inside, a (named) Temple official said.

Police described both suspects as 5-foot-10 men with a medium builds. One was wearing a dark hoodie, the other a Bucks County Community College hoodie.

[Daily News | 6 ABC | Philly.com]