Rooftop Murder Update

WEST PHILADELPHIA - June 18, 2007 (WPVI) -- Philadelphia Police arrested three people late Monday in the wake of a rooftop murder in West Philadelphia. However, after questioning they were released. Now police are looking for another pair.

Police apprehended the men at 70th and Cobbs Creek Parkway. They were brought in for questioning in connection with the beating death of a 28-year-old man on the roof of a building near 49th and Locust Streets.

The three are described as modern day hobos. Anarchistic vagabonds who travel by train, jumping boxcars when it's time to go. But today the three of them apparently tried to make a getaway by train - but they didn't get very far.

The men jumped the train at 70th and Cobbs Creek, but the cops caught up with them and hauled them off in handcuffs. After questioning the men were released, and now police are looking for a man and a woman, possibly with a dog.

The victim's body was found on the rooftop of an abandoned apartment building in West Philadelphia. Police sources say a group of squatters were drinking on the rooftop last night when a fight broke out. The victim was stomped to death.

Police say the squatters are a part of an underground network of young people who reject the norms of society. They travel by train, form town to town, taking over vacant buildings. Neighbors say the group's been in the neighborhood for about three years.

Marie Thompson tells Action News, "No sanitation, no running water. There's nowhere to take a bath. They've been here. The tenants and us have been complaining about them. They'll come once a year, they'll clean out the building and then (the squatters will) come right back and move in numbers. Each year the numbers are growing."

Police say there are pockets of them throughout West Philadelphia. They raided one house of 48th Street and took seven squatters in for questioning.

Police say the squatters are mostly well educated from upper-middle class families, who choose to reject society's values and live on the fringe.

(Copyright 2007 by 6abc and Action News. All rights reserved.)

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