Temple student faces months of rehabilitation after off-campus attack and mugging

NORTH PHILADELPHIA - “You never want to get that phone call where’s he’s hurt, he was mugged,” Diane D’Agostino stated.

D’Agostino will never forget the call she got Sunday morning, saying her 20-year-old son, Grant, had been attacked and robbed just off the Temple University campus.

“I was very upset, not being able to be close to him, with COVID, not being able to go to the hospital,” D’Agostino remarked.

Police say Grant, a transfer student at Temple, was riding his skateboard in the 1500 block of Jefferson Street and headed to breakfast. That’s when a car passed him.

Four young men got out, knocked him to the ground and beat him. They took his cell phone and fled right past a surveillance camera on that corner.

“He has a shattered ankle. His foot’s broken and several hairline fractures below his knee,” D’Agostino said. “It’s definitely a very traumatizing situation.”

Temple senior Luke Schwuedler lives at the corner of 15th and Jefferson. He, too, was mugged just off campus. He knows the pain and trauma Grant is now experiencing.

“Hopefully he’s okay and can muster up the ability to walk around here the same again,” Schwuedler said.

Diane D’Agostino says her son’s attackers quickly used his stolen credit card at a nearby Popeye’s restaurant. She thanked several students who came to her son’s rescue.

“I thank you for helping him. You didn’t know him, but you helped him and you went and stepped in,” D’Agostino remarked.

D’Agostino can’t wait until her son returns home for the holidays. He faces months of physical therapy.

“I can’t wait to wrap my hands, my arms around him and kiss him and say it’s alright. He’ll probably be, like, ‘No not really. I’m fine, Mom, I’m good,’” D’Agostino added.

Grant's family has set up a GoFundMe to assist in his recovery.

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Click here to find resources for victims of violence in Philadelphia.

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