Police: Suspect sought in hammer attack, robbery in Ogontz

Police: Suspect sought in hammer attack, robbery in Ogontz

FOX 29's Jeff Cole has more on a violent hammer attack and robbery at an Ogontz-area gas station.

OGONTZ - Police are searching for a man who they say attacked a gas station employee with a hammer and robbed the store Monday night in Ogontz.

Video shows a man wearing an old fashioned style hockey goalie mask enter the Shell Station on the 6200 block of North Broad Street around 10 a.m. Police say the suspect struck a 40-year-old Manjeet Singh several times with a hammer and dragged the man into the store's bathroom.

"I saw him, I turned back to run inside the bullet-proof cabin, but when I turned he ran too fast and hit me in the back of the head with the hammer," Singh said.

According to authorities, the suspect took an undisclosed amount of money and several packs of cigarettes before fleeing the store. He was last spotted heading west on Stenton Avenue.

The victim was taken to an area hospital where he was listed in critical but stable condition. Singh, an immigrant from India, suffered a fractured skull, thumb, wrist, hand and fingers. A gash in his head required multiple stitches and he may face surgery for a blood clot.

"The way he was hitting my head, no normal person can do that to a human being," Singh said.

The suspect is described as a stocky black man. Police say he was wearing a dark colored hooded sweatshirt, dark colored pants with a white stripe on each pant leg, and dark sneakers at the time of the attack.

Anyone with information on this incident is encouraged to call investigators at 215-686-8477.