Lax Security Blamed in Attempted Sexual Assual in Philadelphia

Nov. 18, 2004
Questions of how attacker was able to pass by guards on way in and escape after incident

A man clutching a pair of scissors attacked a Drexel University graduate student as she studied at the school's Hahnemann University Hospital campus yesterday, police said.

The student was on the 8th floor of the school doing research in an office when the man approached from behind at about 5:30 p.m., police said.

The unidentified student received a few cuts and blows as she fought off the attempted sexual assualt. A doctor responded to her screams and the attacker fled.

A swarm of cops rushed to the building on Broad Street near Vine but the attacker escaped.

She has "superficial cuts and bruises to her face," said police spokesman Inspector William Colarulo. But there was "no evidence of a sexual assault."

Emergency room doctors treated the woman for her minor injuries and Colorulo said the special victims unit will aid police in the investigation.

Cops said they don't think the woman knew the man and were trying to figure out how he got inside the building, which has security guards posted at its several entrances. The Drexel campus is connected to the hospital and serves as one of two sites for the university's medical program. The other campus is in East Falls.

A Daily News reporter managed to walk past three guards posted near the 15th Street entrances an hour after the attack and ride an elevator to the eighth floor.

The hallways were empty and a sign had been posted next to an elevator alerting students to the recent attack.

Students leaving the building's 15th Street door said lax security has always been a problem.

Second-year graduate student Diana Coffie, 24, said "It is ridiculous and scary."

Coffie said. "That's why I try to get out of here by six o'clock."

Attempts to reach a spokesperson for the hospital were unsuccessful.