Family: Old City Shooting Victim 'Hero'

PHILADELPHIA - A recent college graduate is clinging to life following the Old City shooting caught on tape outside Fox 29's studios over the weekend.

On Wednesday, the family of 23-year-old Eddie DiDonato spoke out publicly for the first time and called him a hero.

"The fact that Eddie is alive is a true miracle," said Gina Rubel, a spokeswoman for DiDonato's family.

The La Salle College High School and Villanova University graduate was still listed in critical condition Wednesday at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital.

"Eddie was shot in the hand, the chest, the abdomen. The injuries were to his lungs, his liver, his intestines, his colon and his hand," Rubel said.

Fox 29's security cameras caught the violence at Fourth and Market streets on tape around 2:30 a.m.

DiDonato and a group of friends were playing around doing chin-ups, according to the family spokeswoman, after they'd been out earlier in Old City.

That's when the surveillance cameras captured shooting suspect Gerald Ung – a Temple University law student – walking and bumping DiDonato's group.

DiDonato and friends followed him, the video shows, and police said Ung pulled out a gun.

Family says that's when DiDonato stepped toward Ung, protecting his friends

Police said Ung fired multiple times.

"We want everyone to know that Eddie is our hero. He stepped in front of his two friends when they were presented with a .38-caliber gun that was being pointed at them. He took two bullets to the chest from four-and-a-half feet away, and within six seconds he was shot six times.

DiDonato has one more surgery, and that's scheduled for Thursday. Fox 29 News is told he is alert, talking and told his family he does remember the shooting.

Family members said DiDonato has received hundreds of well wishes and visits from his former coaches at Villanova.

Ung's first court appearance is scheduled for Monday.