September 26, 2023,
Large groups of young people broke into numerous stores across Philadelphia Tuesday night, stealing merchandise and vandalizing property, Acting Police Commissioner John Stanford said.
The unrest stretched across the city, including Center City, the Northeast, and West Philadelphia, with business corridors along Aramingo Avenue and Walnut Street targeted through the night.
Wednesday afternoon, police said 52 people, including three juveniles, had been arrested and most would be charged with burglary and theft. One person has been charged with illegal gun possession, according to the District Attorney's Office. Fine Wine & Good Spirits said all of its stores would close until further notice after 18 locations were burglarized overnight.
Initial reports of break-ins near Rittenhouse Square began just after 8 p.m., shortly after protesters had dispersed from a gathering at City Hall for Eddie Irizarry, who was shot and killed by a Philadelphia Police officer last month. Earlier Tuesday, a judge dismissed all charges against the officer who killed him, setting off a wave of outrage in the community.
The young people involved, Stanford said, appeared to have organized their efforts on social media, and once one group started, others followed suit. He said police believe there was a caravan of cars moving between locations across the city and breaking into stores and pharmacies. Some of the people involved in that group were arrested, he said.
No injuries were reported, Stanford said.
Much of the night was sadly livestreamed and chronicled on social media.
Around 8:15 p.m., videos showed groups of young people gather around the Apple Store near 16th and Walnut Streets and pry the front doors from the security guards' hands. Shortly after, as the group ran down Walnut Street, the devices were locked and disabled by security technology and a loud alarm started sounding. Some people smashed the devices on the ground and police recovered a "pile of iPads" abandoned nearby.
The groups also broke into Foot Locker and Lululemon, and videos showed numerous teens fleeing the store with clothing. Officers attempted to apprehend some of them, and tackled a few to the ground.
Police had cleared and secured the Rittenhouse area by 9:10 p.m., and locked down a four-block stretch.
Police later reported stores being vandalized along Aramingo Avenue in Port Richmond and other locations in North Philadelphia.
One woman livestreamed dozens of people breaking into a Fine Wine & Good Spirits store. Her video stream ended when, as she drove away, police appeared to pull her car over.
Just before midnight Tuesday, a police officer said the unrest had been contained "for the most part."
Officers, he said, were still responding to some emergency calls, and have been instructed to arrest all those involved at the scenes.
The business corridors affected Tuesday night were similar to those targeted in the summer of 2020, after tensions between police and communities rose after the police murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis. Philadelphia was one of dozens of cities across the country to experience mass unrest; some stores through Center City were burned down, and parts of West and North Philadelphia were heavily looted and vandalized.
Community outrage rose anew just a few months later, in October 2020, when Philadelphia police shot and killed Walter Wallace Jr.
From Mainstream Media