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Twitter detectives track down alleged attackers of gay couple

Amateur sleuths used Twitter to help track down the alleged attackers of a gay couple in Philadelphia after police released video of the group.

By Frances Burns

PHILADELPHIA, Sept. 18 (UPI) -- The group who allegedly attacked two gay men in Philadelphia are graduates of a Catholic high school in the suburbs who were on a night out, police said.

People described as persons of interest in the assault were identified by amateur online detectives working with video released by police. They began turning themselves in late Wednesday to police.

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One of the most active sleuths was a Twitter user identified as @FanSince09, while another was a former member of the cast of Real Housewives of New Jersey.

"This is the largest public display that I've seen of crowdsourcing to get info for crime victims," said Sgt. Eric Gripp, a police spokesman. "We receive a lot of info daily about the videos we post. We don't seem to see it to the scale that this was."

One alleged assailant was an assistant basketball coach at his old school, Archbishop Wood in Warminster. The Philadelphia Daily News, citing sources close to the team, identified him as Fran McGlinn, 25, a star on the school's team before his graduation in 2007.

Kevin Gavin, a spokesman for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, said McGlinn had been dismissed as a contract coach.

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"He was terminated this evening and will not be permitted to coach in any archdiocesan school," Gavin said Wednesday. "We expect all those who work with students in our schools to model appropriate Christian behavior at all times."

The victims said they were attacked by about a dozen people in their 20s, both men and women, in the Rittenhouse Square neighborhood after someone in the group asked one man if the other was his boyfriend, using an obscenity. One man was injured so badly his jaw had to be wired shut.

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