A 25-year-old woman was walking along the 1400 block of Callowhill Street, right outside the Philadelphia Police Department’s headquarters, when a man ran up to her from behind and robbed her around 5:40 a.m. on Thursday morning, according to police.
The victim, who had to be transported to a local hospital for injuries she sustained in the robbery, was a 911 dispatcher, union business agent Darnell Davis told the Philadelphia Inquirer.
“She’s pretty bruised up,” Davis told the newspaper, noting that she was 20 steps from the building when she was robbed. “And she’s pretty shaken up.”
The suspect, described as a Black male wearing a dark hooded sweatshirt with a “Puma” logo on the front and blue jogger pants, dragged the woman along the pavement until he was able to take her purse and flee the scene.
The robbery happened right outside the Philadelphia Police Department’s new headquarters, which opened earlier this year. Multiple police cruisers can be seen parked on the street in surveillance video that was released of the suspect.
Philadelphia, like other big cities around the country, has seen crime surge in recent years.
Robberies with a gun have shot up 61.77%, while robberies without a gun have gone up 20.12%, according to police data. Homicides are roughly flat on the year, with 366 slayings through Sept. 11, compared to 369 at the same point in time in 2021.
