PA- Man slain in Halloween shooting

11-1-2008 Pennsylvania:

Halloween took a decidedly violent turn at twilight Friday in Allentown when a man died after being shot on Ninth Street while trick-or-treaters roamed center city.

Lehigh County Coroner Scott Grim said the man, whom he did not identify, was taken to Lehigh Valley Hospital-Cedar Crest and pronounced dead at 6:37 p.m., soon after the shooting.

The death was ruled a homicide, Grim said, and an autopsy will be performed today. The man was in his early 20s, said Assistant Police Chief Ron Manescu, and had been shot several times.

The shooting happened at 5:53 p.m. just south of Turner Street, near St. Michael's Evangelical Lutheran Church. Police cordoned off about a half-block of Ninth Street while they searched the road and sidewalks.

There were reports from witnesses of one to three men running north on Ninth Street after the shooting, Manescu said.

A woman was loaded into an ambulance a little after 6 p.m. She was conscious and moving as they rolled her on a gurney.

Manescu said the woman was with the victim but wasn't shot.

A crowd of about two dozen , including a little girl in a witch's hat, milled about Ninth and Turner while police worked.

No one interviewed by a reporter agreed to be identified in the newspaper.

Two women stood behind the police tape near the church's steps. One said she came there after receiving a call that her nephew, in his early 20s, had been shot.

The woman said she feared he was a victim of gang violence.

''These gangs, there's too much,'' she said.

''It would be too early to comment on that type of thing,'' Manescu said.

Friday's homicide is the 16th in Allentown this year and the second in October. On Oct. 10, 31-year-old Roberto Rosario was shot dead in a still-running SUV on Cedar Street as his three children sat in the vehicle.

Halloween's shooting also brings the city closer to its record for homicides -- 21 -- which was set last year. ..News Source.. by Brian Callaway | Of The Morning Call