What to Know
- A $10,000 reward is being offered for information leading to the arrest of the person or people who beat a Philadelphia father into a coma.
- Frank Tarantella was found lying unconscious outside Cookies Bar on Oct. 11. He remains in a coma.
- If you have any information on the incident, please call the Crime Commission Tipline at 215-546-TIPS.
A man who lives several blocks from Cookie's Tavern along Oregon Avenue in South Philadelphia is wanted as a suspect in the beating at the bar that may be connected to a fight that left another man in a coma.
Peter Ricioppo, 31, of the 2600 block of South Watts Street, allegedly beat up another man sometime around 11:30 p.m., Oct. 11, inside Cookie's. The corner bar at Oregon Avenue and Alder Street was the scene of a fight also at that time that left another man, Frank Tarantella, seriously injured.
Police, in seeking help finding Ricioppo, did not directly tie him to the attack on Tarantella.
Another man, who has not been identified, was described as the alleged victim of Ricioppo's.
A $10,000 reward is being offered for information leading to the arrest of the person or people who beat Tarantella.
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When officers arrived late on the Friday night in mid-October, they found Tarantella lying unconscious on the sidewalk.
As of Oct. 29, he remained in a coma at Jefferson Hospital, his family told NBC10.
"He has a fractured skull. He was bleeding on the brain. He has brain stem damage. Severe brain stem damage," Christine Lassiter, Tarantella’s fiancée and the mother of his teenage son, said.
If you have any information on the incident, please call the Crime Commission Tipline at 215-546-TIPS.
Correction (Nov. 5, 2019, 2:39 p.m.): This story has been updated to properly spell the last name of Peter Ricioppo and clarify where the fight he is accused in took place.
