By Barbara Boyer and Robert Moran
The Philadelphia Inquirer
PHILADELPHIA — A 29-year veteran police officer -- whose father was killed during a carjacking in the 1970s -- is out of the hospital after tackling a gunman despite being shot in the arm during a robbery in South Philadelphia, police said.
Mark S. Uffelman, 52, insisted that he call his mother himself from Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, where he was being treated for the gunshot wound this morning, said police spokesman Lt. Frank Vanore.
He wanted to assure his mother knew he was OK because he feared she would relive the phone call she received Oct. 13, 1978, when her husband, Charles Uffelman, also a police officer, was fatally shot during a carjacking while off-duty.
“He just didn’t want her to think it was happening again,” Vanore said.
Uffelman, who wears his father’s badge, is recovering while authorities try to establish whether the two men arrested during this morning’s robbery are connected to the fatal shooting of Beau Zabel, 23, with a 9 mm handgun. Zabel, an aspiring teacher from Minnesota, was robbed of his iPod last week in the same neighborhood.
Uffelman and his partner, Dave McAndrews, a 12-year veteran, were working a plain-clothes robbery detail near Eighth and Fitzwater Streets in response to Zabel’s robbery and murder at Eighth and Ellsworth Streets.
The two officers, from the Third District, came upon a robbery in progress about 1:30 a.m., police said. The victim, a man in his 20s, was on his way home from a party and was being held up at gunpoint by two men, police said.
The gunmen fled and split apart after the officers jumped from their vehicle and announced they were police officers, Vanore said.
The officers first placed the victim in their police cruiser to keep him safe and attempted to give chase by vehicle before it turned into a foot pursuit. The victim begged that he not be left alone, police said.
While the two officers chased on foot, one of the suspects turned and “fired four to five shots,” with one bullet striking Uffelman in the left arm, Vanore said. The bullet entered below his elbow and exited on the opposite side, just above his elbow, Vanore said.
Uffelman continued the chase, caught the suspect and wrestled him to the ground, police said. Officers recovered a .38-caliber revolver from the man, who is 42, police said.
The partner, McAndrews, captured the other suspect, who is 22, and recovered a 9 mm handgun.
In the Zabel shooting, authorities have video from a nearby surveillance camera that captured the man they believe was the gunman. He is seen tucking an object in his waistband while fleeing after Zabel was shot.
In the neighborhood, some people expressed concern, while others shrugged at the violence.
“It makes me nervous,” said Emma Segal, 23. “You hear it everywhere else, but never here.”
Mike Thomas D’Addesi said he’s been a bartender at Vesuvio’s restaurant at the corner of Eighth and Fitzwater for the last two years and he’s seen nothing as bad as the last two incidents.
But, he added, “This is the city.”
Copyright 2008 The Philadelphia Inquirer