THE INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSIT Y OF PENNSYLVANIA BY
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WEDNESDAY, APRIL 16, 2014
Bagtas charged with 10 burglaries, no longer a Penn student
Suspect in 40th St. shooting charged with murder
The former College freshman is in custody at the Philadelphia Industrial Correction Center
BY JILL CASTELLANO Staff Writer
simple assault for Tuesday morning’s incident. Gaynor attempted to flee the scene, but was apprehended near 40th and Pine streets, where he was taken into custody and where Penn Police also found a semiautomatic gun that matches the ballistics from the scene. Multiple witnesses
After Tuesday morning’s shooting near 40th and Spruce streets, administrators described their efforts to keep students safe around the time of the incident. An email sent out to parents of Penn students during the day on Tuesday described the details of the shooting. “Because of its nearness to campus, we wanted to be sure that you were aware of the facts surrounding this tragic loss of life,” the email from President Amy Gutmann, Provost Vincent Price and Executive Vice President Craig Carnaroli said. Neither the victim nor the suspected shooter are affiliated with Penn, according to the Division of Public Safety, nor were any of the 15 patrons in the bar at the time of the shooting. There were no other injuries reported, police said. The email to Penn parents specified that a UPenn Alert was sent at 1:42 a.m. to the “campus community” and that the victim was pronounced dead at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania at approximately 2 a.m. The exact time of death was 1:43 a.m., according to the Philadelphia Police Department — one minute after the UPenn Alert and 18 minutes before the approximated time sent in the letter. The UPenn Alert itself was sent to Penn students 12 minutes after the gunshots were fired. During the 12-minute delay, DPS said, officers were arriving on the scene, verifying the report and searching for the suspect. UPenn Alerts are sent out “as soon as DPS becomes aware of an incident that has the potential of posing ongoing danger to the University,” Vice President for Public Safety Maureen Rush said. DPS added that it can sometimes take seven or eight minutes for all of the messages to get sent to students because the messages need to “build up once the button is actually pressed.” According to DPS, it took just under five minutes from when the UPenn Alert was issued to when students received the alert. The exact amount of time it takes an alert to reach people also depends on a person’s cell phone carrier and how many people will receive the alert, Rush added. Students always receive UPenn
SEE CHARGES PAGE 8
SEE RESPONSE PAGE 5
BY COSETTE GASTELU Staff Writer The former Penn basketball player who has been charged with committing a total of 10 on-campus burglaries is no longer a student at the University, according to the Division of Public Safety. Anthony Bagtas — who goes by Tony — was arrested for a second time on April 10 and has now been charged with all eight of the burglaries that reportedly occurred in the Quad on March 22, as well as two other burglaries dating back to September 2013 and January of this year, Penn Police Deputy Chief Michael Morrin said. Bagtas is currently in custody at the Philadelphia Industrial Correction Center. He has a status hearing for the April 11 charges scheduled on May 12 and a preliminary hearing for the March 25 charges on May 29. Then still a College freshman, Bagtas, still a College freshman at the time, met with personnel from the Office of the Vice Provost for University Life on April 4, Vice President for Public Safety Maureen Rush said. At the meeting, VPUL officials and Bagtas “came to a mutual agreement that because of a combination of issues — partly his criminal investigation — [Bagtas] would take a voluntary leave of absence,” Rush explained. In taking this voluntary leave of absence, Bagtas’ status as a Penn student was revoked. As The Daily Pennsylvanian reported on Monday, Bagtas was released from the men’s basketball team prior to his March 24 arrest. Rush added that Penn Athletics and administrators were notified of the possibility of Bagtas’ criminal activity “at the appropriate time” once Bagtas was initially arrested on March 24. “There are never any notifications made to non-law enforcement personnel during an ongoing criminal investigation,” Rush said. On March 24, Bagtas was arrested for two of the eight burglaries that reportedly took place in the Quad on March 22, but the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office declined to press charges on one of the burglaries at the time. Bagtas, a former resident of Riepe College House, was removed from the Quad and was released on bail following his first arrest. SEE BAGTAS PAGE 10
Luke Chen/Weekly Pennsylvanian Editor
Twenty-six-year-old Corey Gaynor was charged Tuesday night with the murder outside of Copabanana early that morning. (Top) Police talk near the scene. (Bottom) The victim’s blood and baseball cap lie on the ground outside of Copabanana minutes after the incident. BY JILL CASTELLANO Staff Writer Corey Gaynor, a 26-year-old man, was charged Tuesday evening with murder for the homicide he allegedly committed near 40th and Spruce streets early Tuesday morning. Gaynor was also charged with aggravated assault for Tuesday’s incident near Copabanana,
as well as altering identification marks on a firearm, carrying a firearm without a license, carrying a firearm in public in Philadelphia, possession of a criminal instrument with intent to use it and resisting arrest. His preliminary hearing is set for April 30 and he was denied bail for these charges. Gaynor was also charged separately for aggravated and
Applications to Healthcare Management increase 360% BY BRENDA WANG Deputy News Editor One group at Penn should actually be saying “Thanks Obama.” There was an approximate 360 percent increase in applicants to the undergraduate health care management and policy concentration in Wharton for the class of 2018, and some professors say the raging health care reform debate drove the growth. The cause of the unexpected spike in interest has “obviously been healthcare reform and the Affordable Care Act,” Wharton professor and Chair of the Health Care Management Depa r tment Law ton Bur ns said. “People are getting more exposure to all the intricate infrastructure of health care reform.” In recent years, the department typically saw around 28
Division of Public Safety explains response to shooting
students apply to the concentration each admission cycle, Dean of Admissions Eric Furda said. This year the numbers shot up to around 130 applicants. This may partly be because, in a difficult economy, the job outlook for people with a background in health care is bright. The Bureau of Labor Statistics predicted in 2013 that the health care and social assistance sector will add five million jobs by 2022, and one-third of all new jobs in the United States will be in health care. The concentration’s newfound popularity may also be because more students recognize that health care reform is a global concern, Burns said. “Health care is just a big ticket issue for everybody,” he said, pointing out that China is in the process of enacting reforms as well. “It is big in the East as well as in the West.”
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Burns also sees Penn as a leader in the health care management field, because it is “the only Ivy League school and the only major business school that actually has a department of health care.” The integrative nature of the concentration is unique to Penn, Burns said. There is “a lot of cross fertilization taking place” between the department, the medical school, the law school and the school of nursing, Burns added. “I think it’s a pretty happening place.” Penn’s Health Care Management Department is “one of the top reasons I came to Penn,” Wharton freshman Anina Oliver said. “At other schools, you can do business or public health but even if you do a double major it’s not integrated well at all.” “It’s already helped me in the internship market,” she ■ added.
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EATING GREENER
Henry Lin/Staff Photographer
At an event on Tuesday night, students gathered at oikosPenn’s Organic Food Tasting Event in the Civic House living room. The event was part of Penn Green Week and hosted by Penn Environmental Group.
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