The Eddie Polec murder case centers on the murder of a 16-year-old Edward William Polec. that took place on the front steps of his church in the Philadelphia Fox Chase neighborhood on the night of Friday, November 11, 1994. The case drew national media attention because it happened in a middle-class residential part of the city not customarily known for such a crime. Adding to its controversy was that it was carried out by a band of mixed-race youth from neighboring Montgomery County's upscale suburban Abington Township. The Philadelphia 911 emergency phone service and the Philadelphia police were extraordinarily slow in responding that night. Inciting incident The murder of Eddie Polec was the end result of minor hostilities that had developed between Fox Chase youth and a young female from Abington Township the week before, outside a Fox Chase McDonald's Restaurant. A group of Fox Chase teenagers were alleged to have upset the girl by tossing a plastic cup of soda into her car. This much was later admitted to by the Fox Chase youth. But when word of the incident got back to Abington Township, it grew out of proportion to include a false rumor that she had been raped in the McDonald's parking lot. In response, a group of Abington teenagers decided to retaliate on her behalf in conjunction with a warning she had allegedly made the night of the initial incident just before departing Fox Chase: "You're all getting [expletive] beat up next weekend." According to witnesses, she was seen again in Fox Chase early the following Friday night driving the same vehicle, this time along with Abington youth in another car, the passengers of both cars making threats similar to the one she had made the week before, only this time for later that night. Both vehicles then departed Fox Chase, and around 9:30 P.M. five carloads packed with other Abington teenagers arrived in their wake in what was described as a tightly formed caravan. It first stopped at a Fox Chase 7-Eleven store, and after taking over its parking lot, some of its passengers got out and demanded directions to the McDonald's. The one perceived to be the leader was overheard to say, "Come on, we have to do this. We have a job to get done. Let's do this before the police come." Before returning to their cars he was witnessed jumping up and