PLYMOUTH TOWNSHIP, Pa. — Two Cheltenham Township police officers, two detectives and a Five Below store manager were honored by Montgomery County District Attorney Kevin R. Steele for the response to a stabbing that authorities said nearly killed a store security guard.

The Mercury reported that Cheltenham detectives Philip Degliomini and Matthew Gonglik, officers Stewart Coyle and Sean Maguire, and Five Below manager Loresha McCray received commendations during Steele’s May 13 law-enforcement ceremony at the county Public Safety Training Campus.

Patrol-car transport when minutes mattered

The case centered on a Dec. 6, 2024 attack at the Five Below in the Greenleaf Shopping Center on West Cheltenham Avenue. The Mercury reported that a security guard had been stabbed in the lung and side after confronting a shoplifting suspect.

According to Steele’s remarks as reported by the outlet, Officer Maguire and Officer Coyle found the victim in a pool of blood and slipping in and out of consciousness. The officers decided there was not enough time to wait for EMS and drove the guard to Jefferson Einstein Philadelphia Hospital in a patrol vehicle.

Steele said that fast transport helped the victim receive emergency surgical intervention quickly and helped save his life, according to the report.

Detectives and store manager helped carry the case

The report said detectives Degliomini and Gonglik gathered surveillance video and license-plate-reader information that helped identify Truman Jermaine Parks as the attacker and locate him at a Philadelphia residence.

Parks, 53, was later convicted and sentenced to 20 to 40 years in prison on attempted murder, aggravated assault and other charges tied to the attack, The Mercury reported.

McCray, the store manager, stayed with the injured guard after the attack and later provided key testimony during the prosecution, according to Steele’s comments reported by the outlet.

Why this story matters

For Support Law Enforcement readers, this case shows the public rarely sees every part of a life-saving response: the officers who move a bleeding victim, the detectives who turn video and plate data into an arrest, and the civilian witness who keeps showing up until the case is finished.

The featured image on this ThinBlueNews story is an editorial news card, not an incident photo. ThinBlueNews did not reuse the local-news ceremony photograph; the image clearly labels that no incident photo is implied.

Sources and attribution

  • The Mercury / MediaNews Group reported the names, commendation context, response details, court outcome and Steele’s remarks from the Montgomery County District Attorney ceremony.