Philadelphia Police released security video Friday showing a group of teenagers beating an elderly man with a traffic cone.
Philadelphia Police Department stated that authorities were looking for seven teens in the video. The video was captured on June 24, 2009.
According to police, the victim was not identified and is blurred by the officers in the video. He fell to the ground after being hit with “objects”. The victim died the following day.
The video shows the department offering a $20,000 reward for information leading towards an arrest or conviction.
According to the department, the group seemed to be in their teens to early to mid-teens.
According to his family, the man was identified as James Lambert Jr., a 73-year old man who went by the name “Simmie” by NBC Philadelphia.
The video shows the man crossing a street north from downtown Philadelphia, before one of the teens can clearly be seen throwing a cone at the man. It’s not clear whether the teens knew of the man or what happened before the assault.
The video shows a second teenager picking up the cone and throwing the cone at the man. The teenage girl runs after him, picking up the cone once more.
It appears that she is preparing to throw it again, before disappearing from camera. The incident was captured by several teens.
Last year, Philadelphia was the scene of a record 523 homicides. NBC Philadelphia reported that there have been 280 homicides so far in 2022, which is 2 percent less than the previous year.
The latest FBI data shows that the murder rate in the United States rose by almost 30% between 2015 and 2020. Experts aren’t sure what is driving this surge in violent crime.
