OLD CITY SHOOTER: The Defendent Is Presumed Innocent Until Proven Guilty In The Court Of Facebook
INQUIRER: Friends of Gerald Ung, the Temple University law student charged with shooting a Villanova University graduate six times in Old City last weekend, said yesterday that he is friendly, smart, and the opposite of a troublemaker. “Gerald is not a gun-happy, overstressed law student waiting to go postal,” one friend, Ernest Apaga, said in an e-mail. “He is extraordinarily gregarious and dynamic, and there is no doubt in my mind that his friends and professors at Temple are scurrying to figure out how to get him the proper legal counseling and funding he’ll need.” The man who was shot, Eddie DiDonato Jr., 23, of Blue Bell, remained in critical condition at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, where yesterday he underwent his fourth operation since being shot in a hand, the chest, and the abdomen. DiDonato, a former captain of Villanova’s lacrosse team, is a nephew of city Republican leader Michael Meehan’s and the son of Center City lawyer Edward J. DiDonato. Ung, 28, of West Philadelphia, is charged with attempted murder and related counts. Two Facebook groups have been created by friends of each man: “Gerald Ung Is Innocent” and “Support Eddie DiDonato on His Road to Recovery.” Gina Furia Rubel, who owns a public-relations firm and as a DiDonato family friend is acting as a spokeswoman, said DiDonato’s parents had been reading him messages of support left on the Facebook site. MORE
PREVIOUSLY: Old City Shooter In Custody
![[Digg]](http://cdn1.diggstatic.com/img/favicon.a015f25c.ico){kind=small}
![[del.icio.us]](http://images.del.icio.us/static/img/delicious.small.gif){kind=small}
Phawker.com's
January 26th, 2010 at 7:26 pm
Mr. Ung was carrying a gun! The statement that Mr. Ung is friendly and not a troublemaker makes me ask…why does the guy have a gun? It sounds to me that he was a ticking timebomb. People do argue and have altercations, since when is it okay to shoot someone? not once but six times? I’m disgusted by anyone who would support Mr.Ung. I know Eddie DiDonato and he’s a fine young man and for him and his family to have suffered like this is incredibly tragic.
January 27th, 2010 at 7:18 am
Lol Steve. The video clearly shows your fine young man accosting a group, and mainly Ung. Tragedy usually befalls the stupid. If he wasn’t harassing Ung that day, and just tried to get laid, he would be out drinking right now. Why are people so stymied by 6 shots? Google police shootings, it’s never one shot. One shot, one kill is only for the movies.
January 28th, 2010 at 1:19 pm
The hero he was “NOT”. That entitled bitch had what was coming.I’m speaking not in the court of law but, rather human decency. Steve 1 if your kids act like that wild pack of goons that threatened Ung. I would wish the same fate upon them too. Same as if they were kids. I’m sick of these people that come on T.V speaking good word for the aggressor/troublemaker.
January 28th, 2010 at 3:08 pm
Doppleganger- have you been shot 6 times? what a stupid thing to say… “why are people so stymied by 6 shots?” easy for you to say…
From a blog posted Monday:
Saw the video this morning on TV, and they lightened and enhanced the video and played it in slow motion. I played the slow motion version in even slower slow motion on my DVR. Here’s what it shows, frame by frame:
-From the viewer’s perspective, DiDonato’s party is at the top of the screen. Left to right is White Hat Jerkoff (WHJ), DiDonato’s other friend in the middle, and DiDonato on the right…..and Ung’s female friend on the left, Ung’s other friend in the middle, and Ung on the right.
-There’s jawing going on between Ung’s whole party and the WHJ. Every head is turned toward WHJ. DiDonato and his other friend have a nonchalant posture. WHJ is fired up and aggressive.
-WHJ lunges at Ung, kinda fake, but right into the girl nonetheless. He could’ve ran that girl over, but he stopped… one of those fake “I’ll fight you” type things.
-Ung sees this, immediately draws his weapon. Ung’s friend, still in the middle, kinda tries to box Ung away with his backside while giving a STOP sign with his palm to WHJ.
-Ung wheels behind his friend with the gun still on WHJ. Ung’s friend gets the heck out of there, leaving out the bottom of the screen. Ung makes it over to WHJ, gun drawn on him. The girl is to his left.
-White Hat Jerkoff backs up a a few small paces and freezes. The girl stays directly in front of him, facing him with her back toward Ung. They’re no longer involved and neither really move. The action continues behind the girl.
-Ung then points the gun at Eddie Didonato’s other friend, who is still nonchalantly walking until that point. Ung is walking backwards.
-DiDonato side steps directly to his right in front of his friend who was in the middle and who the gun was pointed at, and keeps the same nonchalant pace with his hands to his side (This must be why his friends and family are saying he is a hero who took bullets for his friends. I think he’s seen too many hostage negotiation movies, but heroic nonetheless).
-WOW this is chilling. The gun is now on DiDonato, whose arms are still at his sides. His pace hasn’t changed, still nonchalant, still slow. Ung is still slowly walking backwards, gun on him. Then BOOM out of nowhere, DiDonato drops straight to the ground like the floor fell beneath him. He never swung, made contact, or attempted to make contact. Ung just shot him.
-When the shots go off, the girl turns around, sees what happens, and runs into Market Street with her head down. So does DiDonato’s friend who he stepped infront of. WHJ stands there in absolute shock, not moving. He’s completely froze. It’s surreal. Ung opens fire, DiDonato goes down, DiDonato’s friend and Ung’s girlfriend run side by side with their heads down into Market Street, and WHJ is a statue at the top left of my screen, unable to move like a deer in headlights.
-Unfortunately when he fell, he fell out the bottom of the camera’s range. Ung opened fire right before he dropped out of the camera’s view. There’s no way of telling what happened after the first shot or two was fired.
** DiDonato’s arms are visible and his pace never changes. He never “rushes” Ung. People saying that saw his movement change drastically at the end. That was him going down out of the bottom of the screen when he was shot, not him coming at the shooter like Lawrence Taylor on a blitz. This is people seeing what they want to see: some nerdy, urban-cool, Asian law student yupster vs. a well-built, white, yuppie, suburban athlete. They have a mental image of what each person is, and there’s no way they’re changing it. This is why a lot of people look stupid after the Duke lacrosse case. They see a profile of someone they hate, and they pile on when that person is down. It’s like we never learn.
February 7th, 2010 at 5:12 pm
Gerald Ung’s friends have created a non-profit corporation to accept donations for his defense. We will also be holding a major event on March 27. Please check out the website http://www.theungfund.org to find out about the event, comment, volunteer, or give a donation.