Philadelphia Looting Update as Full List of Accused is Released

Looting continued in Philadelphia last night as police released details of more than 50 people arrested the night before.

Video recorded after last night's looting shows the huge damage done to a liquor store on Adams Avenue. Many of the store's shelves were left bare and some looters dropped bottles outside as police arrived. Elsewhere, police made at least one arrest when a sneaker store on Torresdale Ave was being looted, according to FOX 29 News Philadelphia.

The police list of over 50 arrested the night before shows an age range from 14 to late 30s. The stores the suspects are accused of looting include a Lululemon clothing store; Rite Care and Rite Aid pharmacies; Cash For Gold; U-Haul van rental and branches of Fine Wine & Good Spirits liquor store.

It was another branch of Fine Wine & Good Spirits that was looted on Adams Avenue last night. One photojournalist on the scene posted on social media that the looters raided the store's lottery machine and stole its safe. She also posted footage of the empty space left after looters ripped out a Wells Fargo ATM in another location.

Police records show that most of those arrested were Black, with a smaller number of Latino and white arrestees.

The first night of looting followed a peaceful protest outside City Hall. Protesters gathered there after a judge on Tuesday dismissed murder and other charges against the Philadelphia police officer who shot and killed a Black driver, Eddie Irizarry, prompting an outcry in the Black community.

Interim Philadelphia Police Commissioner, John Stanford, made clear that Irizarry's supporters had nothing to do with the looting.

Their protest had ended peacefully at around 7.30 p.m., Stanford said, and the young people who looted stores were "criminal opportunists" not connected to the earlier gathering.

"This had nothing to do with the protests," Stanford said. "What we had tonight was a bunch of criminal opportunists take advantage of a situation and make an attempt to destroy our city."

Some footage appears to show looters holding up Apple phones they had looted while one pours juice on an Apple phone placed on the ground.

Other footage appears to show looters gathering in a car park before agreeing which stores to raid.

Stanford said numerous 911 calls had reported that as many as 100 young people were moving through Center City.

Videos posted on social media showed groups breaking into an Apple store, Foot Locker and Lululemon on Tuesday night.

Officers arrived at the Foot Locker in the 1500 block of Chestnut Street at 7:58 p.m. on Tuesday night and discovered the store "had been ransacked in a co-ordinated attack," Philadelphia police said in a statement provided to Newsweek on Wednesday.

Police said a number of juveniles fled the scene, but at least one adult was arrested.

A security guard was assaulted at the Foot Locker, CBS Philadelphia reported.

Officers responded to a call of looting at the Lululemon store in the 1700 block of Walnut Street and apprehended multiple people, police said.

Footage posted on X, formerly Twitter, showed people wearing masks and hoodies running out of a branch of Lululemon with police officers grabbing several and tackling them to the sidewalk.

Minutes later, officers responded to a call reporting looting at the Apple store on Walnut Street.

"The store sustained losses in terms of phones and tablets, although numerous stolen items have since been recovered," police said.

Tumar Alexander, the city's managing director, called the unrest "disrespectful to the Irizarry family."

"They've certainly communicated on all of their social media and media appearances about…wanting answers, wanting justice but also wanting it to be peaceful," Alexander said. "And these criminal opportunists just took advantage of this tonight."

By late Tuesday, Stanford said the unrest had been contained "for the most part."

He said: "It's not going to be tolerated. We made arrests and we will continue to make arrests until we have all the individuals or a number of the individuals that have been responsible for what we've seen tonight in custody."

He urged anyone who knows anyone who was engaged in the looting or are trying to sell stolen goods to report them to police.

"Give us that information so that we can make those apprehensions and get those people in custody," he said. "Our city can't afford this type of nonsense."