One would be inclined to consider a kindergarten graduation ceremony a joyful and fun occasion — the polar opposite of dangerous, in fact.
But in Philadelphia on Monday, one such ceremony at John Wister Elementary Mastery Charter School in the city’s Germantown neighborhood was anything but.
‘There was a carjacking in the neighborhood for which police were called separately.’
Police responded to the charter school after 10:15 a.m. over a disturbance involving seating arrangements between two parents, WPVI-TV reported.
Police told the station one of the parents allegedly struck the other parent — a 31-year-old pregnant woman — in the head several times and slammed her into a wall.
Witnesses told WPVI they saw the victim bleeding.
Photo by Kyle Mazza/Anadolu via Getty Images
Medical personnel took the pregnant woman in an ambulance to a hospital where she was treated for her injuries, the station said, citing police.
Police said the attacker — a female wearing a gray hoodie and black pants — took off from the scene and hadn’t been arrested, WPVI reported.
However, WTXF-TV reported that a letter from the principal was sent to the school community about “an altercation between two of our parents” that indicated police “arrived quickly to remove the parents from the scene. Contrary to online rumors, the only injuries were between the two parents involved, and no weapons were drawn or involved in the incident.”
In addition, the letter added that “there was a carjacking in the neighborhood for which police were called separately. This incident did not involve anyone in the Wister community, and the suspect was apprehended.”
Blaze News on Tuesday spoke to an employee of a business near the school who said the incident didn’t faze him because such violence “happens quite a bit.” The employee added to Blaze News that “there are some really rough areas in Germantown” and that the neighborhood his business shares with the school is “semi-rough but getting better” — however, it’s “not somewhere I’d send my kids to school.”
WPVI said Northwest Detectives are heading up an investigation into the matter and that those with information should contact them at 215-685-3353.
WPVI’s video report Monday evening indicated that the school wouldn’t make any other statements about the incident and that the victim — according to her family — was still hospitalized.
Police on Tuesday didn’t immediately respond to Blaze News’ inquiries regarding if the the female parent accused of carrying out the attack had been arrested or identified, if there was any word on the condition of the pregnant victim, or if there is video of the attack.
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