23 Year Old Teacher-to-Be Shot in Philly

[MacFan782040]

Beau Zabel, 23, came to Philadelphia from Minnesota six weeks ago, eager to experience urban East Coast living and to become a math teacher in the city school system.
He found a place to live through roommates.com in South Philadelphia near the Italian Market, and took a temporary job at the Starbucks at Fourth and South Streets.

He recently updated his page on MySpace.com, which proclaims his optimism: "Just waiting for life to begin."

But his life ended about 1:30 a.m. yesterday, when police said Zabel was ambushed as he walked home from the midnight shift at the coffee shop. He was shot once in the neck in the 800 block of Ellsworth Street and fell to the sidewalk, police said.

http://www.philly.com/inquirer/home_top_stories/20080616_Aspiring_teacher_killed_in_robbery.html

Sad story. Philly is getting worse and worse...Sad because I like the city too.

[VideoFreek]

Some depressing statistics here (http://www.ppdonline.org/hq_statistics.php) courtesy of the Philadelphia Police Dept. In addition to 350-400 homicides, Philly is home to 1,000 rapes, 10,000 robberies, and 10,000 aggravated assaults each year.

[Abstract]

Judging from the Philly depicted on the Fresh Prince of Belair, I figured Philly's bad areas were like the Disneyland of gangster-dom.


Anyway, it seems this teacher just had really bad luck. The neighbourhood sounds like a safe enough place.

[dukebound85]

the title is misleading. i thought it was about a teacher getting executed in the near future.....which would be appalling

what a sad story though:(

[David G.]

the title is misleading. i thought it was about a teacher getting executed in the near future.....which would be appalling

what a sad story though:(

I thought the exact same thing, on both counts.

[pianos101]

Horrible story. But living in Philly (well about 20 min west) you get so immune to all of this stuff. Philly sucks. I hate the fact that i can turn a street corner and have to turn around because i fear for my safety. Granted i moved here after living in boston for 5 years, but still; philly is disgusting imho. The only worse city is camden, accross the river, where my cousin works. Thank god he works right off the highway and doesn't have to travel any of the "local" camden streets...

Still terrible... And as for the post title, it is grammatically correct. A teacher-to-be was shot. If the title was "teacher to be shot" then that would make no sense. "Teacher-to-be" is itself a noun (because of the hyphens).

[Antares]

the title is misleading. i thought it was about a teacher getting executed in the near future.....which would be appalling

what a sad story though:(

I thought the exact same thing, on both counts.

Same here. The title is grammatically correct but it is very easy to read that the teacher "is about to be shout in the near future." Anyway, sad story....

[grapes911]

It really isn't any worse than any other major city in the US. As of 2007 it ranked the 21th most dangerous city on the US. Yes, this story is disgusting and the event should not have happened, but its more of a 'generic large US city' problem, than a specific Philly problem.

http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0921299.html

[MacFan782040]

Sorry for the misleading title.

I had no idea that cities such as Orlando, Oakland, Mempis come before Philly on the dangerous scale. :eek:

[lag1090]

The only worse city is camden, accross the river, where my cousin works. Thank god he works right off the highway and doesn't have to travel any of the "local" camden streets...

Most people have the notion that Camden is absolutely horrible in regards to crime. While the statistics support this, you can easily make your way through Camden without any negative consequences (except for getting stuck in traffic, of course).

I'm about ten minutes south of Camden, and it seems like many of the city's people of questionable character decide to spend most of their time down here. My home is also ~10 minutes from the Ben Franklin Bridge, so I often find myself in Philly. From my experience, Philly has just been one of the most prone to producing headaches while visiting.

I guess it just all boils down to experience and as another poster suggested earlier, luck.

[jessica.]

Crime is everywhere, but all things considering I was debating on a solo trip to Philly this July and you can bet that's out of the question!

[nizz]

Horrible story. But living in Philly (well about 20 min west) you get so immune to all of this stuff.

I live right in the center of where most of the homicides occur between north philly and germantown and you never become immune to it. I almost stabbed someone for walking up to me awkwardly at night a while ago, true story.

[MacFan782040]

I live right in the center of where most of the homicides occur between north philly and germantown and you never become immune to it. I almost stabbed someone for walking up to me awkwardly at night a while ago, true story.

Concealed weapon permit? If I was living there, I would...:rolleyes:

[grapes911]

Crime is everywhere, but all things considering I was debating on a solo trip to Philly this July and you can bet that's out of the question!

Solo trips to any big city are usually bad ideas, IMO. But a lot of times it depends on what section of the city you are going to.

[Pooba]

He was robbed for his ipod and shot in the neck. I work in this dump of a city.

[iJohnHenry]

A woman would get a cab provided by her employer, would she not???

This is reverse discrimination at it's worst.

[Jschultz]

Is the neighborhood he got shot in really crappy?

If so, he should have known that.

I am saddened by a life lost, but it is important to know your neighborhood and surroundings REALLY well when you live in a big city. I can tell you almost block by block where to be and not to be in Chicago, and this kid should have done the same for Philly.

I am surprised that Chicago isn't on that list. While most of the city is pretty good, we've got some places that make Baghdad seem nice.

[Abstract]

Is the neighborhood he got shot in really crappy?

If so, he should have known that.


Well firstly, it didn't sound like it. It sounds like a fairly safe neighbourhood. People seemed a bit phased that something happened in their neighbourhood.

Secondly, even if he did live in a bad, or average part of town, doesn't make this event any more understandable.

[debroglie]

As someone who lives in Philly, I can say that he was in what was considered a "safe" area.

And, FWIW, since this story broke there have been 3 new murder stories on our news.

The culture of violence here is outrageous... my work supervisor, a middle-aged woman, has been mugged and stabbed at 3pm in center city while carrying her baby and kidnapped with her children for 6 hours.

Here is the one of the worst I've heard of here: Man beat to death randomly in public by teens (http://www.philly.com/philly/hp/news_update/20080327_Killing_on_SEPTA_platform_shocks_commuters.html)

[kabunaru]

"Just waiting for life to begin."

That's the culprit jinx there.

[Jschultz]

As someone who lives in Philly, I can say that he was in what was considered a "safe" area.

And, FWIW, since this story broke there have been 3 new murder stories on our news.

The culture of violence here is outrageous... my work supervisor, a middle-aged woman, has been mugged and stabbed at 3pm in center city while carrying her baby and kidnapped with her children for 6 hours.

Here is the one of the worst I've heard of here: Man beat to death randomly in public by teens (http://www.philly.com/philly/hp/news_update/20080327_Killing_on_SEPTA_platform_shocks_commuters.html)

Is your city doing anything to quell the violence? It sounds like nobody is safe there.

[grapes911]

Is your city doing anything to quell the violence? It sounds like nobody is safe there.

The new mayor, Michael Nutter, appears to be taking a very strong stance against violence and it really trying to make the city safer. I'm not sure if I agree with all his policies, but I do like what he is doing against crime.

[tsice19]

Wow... the mindless killing just appalls me. What drives people to do this? Too much Grand Theft Auto?

[iJohnHenry]

Nope, too little parental control.

The inmates have taken over the asylum, with the help of bleeding hearts.

Spare the rod, spoil the child.

[ms.gio]

The poor guy. He was just trying to start his life then it came to a crashing end.

[debroglie]

Nope, too little parental control.


This is completely true. It seems like every murder or mugging is done by teenagers.

[nizz]

Guess what? Another murder and possibly 2.
This time it was my neighbor. The front door to this store literally is no more than 30 ft. away from my front door. I know personally that this was not drug-related because they were a good honest couple who came from Africa and was just trying to make a living.

links:

http://www.nbc10.com/news/16890109/detail.html?dl=mainclick
http://abclocal.go.com/wpvi/story?section=news/local&id=6265955
http://cbs3.com/topstories/philadelphia.robbery.shooting.2.771704.html

[pianos101]

Guess what? Another murder and possibly 2.
This time it was my neighbor. The front door to this store literally is no more than 30 ft. away from my front door. I know personally that this was not drug-related because they were a good honest couple who came from Africa and was just trying to make a living.

links:

http://www.nbc10.com/news/16890109/detail.html?dl=mainclick
http://abclocal.go.com/wpvi/story?section=news/local&id=6265955
http://cbs3.com/topstories/philadelphia.robbery.shooting.2.771704.html

Welcome to Philadelphia....

[iJohnHenry]

I know personally that this was not drug-related ...

Maybe on the shop-keepers side, but crack-heads have been known hit anyone that has some coin on hand.

[nizz]

Maybe on the shop-keepers side, but crack-heads have been known hit anyone that has some coin on hand.

It really is an odd place to sell clothing there. When they first moved in, everyone assumed it was a place to push drugs but it really wasn't the case. Even now, people are assuming it is gang/drug related and I was just trying to defend them before the thought comes to mind