Darby man shot 8 times in critical condition

A Darby Township man who survived being shot eight times in front of his apartment complex early Tuesday remained hospitalized in critical condition yesterday.

"I tell you, you could get shot that many times with a BB gun and not make it," said Sgt. Leonard McDevitt Jr., a Darby Township detective. "It's kind of miraculous."

Todd Mathis, 25, was coming home from the Village bar at 53rd and Chestnut streets, in West Philadelphia, when he was riddled with bullets about 2:50 a.m. in front of the Oak Tree Apartments, on West Oak Avenue, police said.

The motive for the attack does not appear to have been robbery, because $1,400 in cash was not taken from Mathis, McDevitt said.

Police were still searching for suspects and trying to find a motive. They said that it was the first shooting in that area of the township in five years.

"Whatever it is, he brought it here with him," McDevitt said.

The bullets hit Mathis in his groin, neck, wrist, leg and chest, according to police.

The shooting was called in by neighbors who heard the gunfire and saw Mathis lying in a pool of blood, police said. Mathis' girlfriend and young child were inside his apartment at the time.

He remained in critical condition at Crozer-Chester Medical Center yesterday.