Investigation Continues After Motel Shootout Caught On Tape in Northeast Philadelphia
By Matt Rivers
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Police are searching for answers after a shootout inside the halls of a Northeast Philadelphia motel is caught on tape.
It happened at the Roosevelt Inn on the 7600 block of the Roosevelt Boulevard in Rhawnhurst.
It was on March 31st when police say gunfire erupted at the Roosevelt Inn, but Thursday, the owner of this motel told CBS 3 he doesn't think a real shooting actually happened. Police are standing by their story.
There are 48 cameras at the Roosevelt Inn. Several of them captured the bizarre scene just after midnight March 31st. You can see one man chasing two others around the motel, both seemingly with guns. When they get to this corner, one man waits while the other sticks his gun around the corner and fires. No one is hit and both get away.
"Small amount of problems with people, in fact all of our guests are very nice," Roosevelt Inn Owner Anthony Uzzo said.
Uzzo doesn't believe there was actually a shooting here, though. He says the facts don't add up, and thinks pellet guns or blanks might have been used.
"They were running around after each other and they were smiling and it looked like it was a staged kind of thing," he said.
So he allowed CBS 3 inside to walk the hallways, our cameras following the same route as the suspects from that night. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary, but it has been 10 days since it happened. Any damage could have easily been fixed by now. Still, Uzzo and the hotel manager who took CBS 3 around stand by their story.
"You don't run after each other with guns and smile and laugh while you're shooting at each other," Uzzo said.
A real shooting or not, though, management here is concerned.
"I don't this shouldn't have occurred and that's why we immediately called the police and asked them to investigate," Uzzo said.
CBS 3 has been trying to get police to respond to what hotel management doubts about the shooting. They would only say the handguns shown in the video were real, but would not confirm whether any bullets or bullet holes were found during the course of their investigation.
