On July 20, a 2-year-old Northeast Philly child was saved by three 15th District cops, police said last week. Responding to a report of a person screaming on the 5200 block of Glenloch Street, Officers Melissa Creamer, Donald Revill and Anthony Berry met a woman who told them her boyfriend was high on PCP and was locked inside their house with their 2-year-old daughter. The woman told the officers the man just had told her their child was dead.
The three cops forced their way into the home and heard someone struggling to breathe on the second floor. Upstairs, police said, the officers saw a man trying to strangle the child. They pulled him off the toddler and saved her life, police said.
The 2-year-old was taken to a hospital; her father was taken to jail. For their efforts, Creamer, Revill and Berry were named Officers of the Month for July during the Aug. 25 meeting of the 15th Police District Advisory Council.
The days before the PDAC’s Monday evening session had been a rough in the district.
“I had four homicides,” said Capt. John McCloskey, the 15th’s commander.
In Frankford, a man was shot and killed on the 4500 block of Josephine Street on Aug. 21. Two women were fatally shot inside a Holmesburg home on the 4700 block of Vista Street on Aug. 23. A man was hit by a car and then shot to death by the driver on the 4700 block of Ramona in Northwood on Aug. 23.
The captain said he’s been promised 25 additional officers, and he expects to place them in the northern two-thirds of the district, which is east of the Boulevard, primarily in the Lower Northeast.
McCloskey said he’s had a lot of car thefts and car burglaries in the district. He added that some residents are leaving their car doors unlocked because they don’t want burglars to break their vehicles’ windows to get inside. They’d rather remove everything of value from their cars.
Another new crime trend is drug dealers riding around on bikes, texting to their clients.
The captain said police have stopped some people who are not from the district’s neighborhoods, but haven’t found their drugs.
“Sometimes, we stop them,” he said. “They’re not from around here and they have a lot of money on them.” ••
