Editor’s Note: As is often the case with surveillance videos released by police, we debated how to report on this for fear of reinforcing stereotypes. In the end we decided to publish the video to help with some measure of justice, but also to maybe start a conversation about what our responsibility as citizens are in a situation like this.
Police are asking for the public’s help in finding a young man who attacked and robbed a 39-year-old woman in what appears to have begun as a bump while getting off the trolley.
The incident took place at around 5:30 p.m., July 10 at 47th Street and Baltimore Avenue. Today, police released surveillance video where the attack can be seen (see below). The woman was exiting the route 34 Trolley when she appeared to push or bump into the man who was standing in the doorway. The suspect can be seen throwing something at the woman after she exited (police say it was a cup). He then followed the woman, punched her and after a brief struggle grabbed her headphones. The suspect can then be seen getting back on the trolley before quickly exiting and fleeing on foot toward 46th Street.
The victim was treated at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania where she received two stitches to her lip, according to police.
The suspect is described as a black male, 20 years old, 5’11”, thin build, clean shaven, wearing a dark colored t-shirt with writing on the front. He was also wearing black shorts and had a multicolored backpack with thin shoulder straps.
Anyone with information about the suspect is asked to contact Southwest Detective Division, Det. McDermott #770 by calling 215-686-3183/3184. You can also text a tip to PPD TIP or 773847.
July 29th, 2014 at 2:57 pm
Uh, how long did you guys have to debate whether or not to post a video of a scumbag who attacked a woman on the street in broad daylight?
I hope this guy goes to jail for a long time.
July 29th, 2014 at 2:59 pm
Am I the only one seeing that those are his headphones that she ripped off of his head as she passed him? And then he goes to get them back. I don’t think those were her headphones.
July 29th, 2014 at 3:02 pm
Why did none of the other people on the trolley stop the man from getting back on and taking her bag????
July 29th, 2014 at 3:02 pm
It sure didn’t take long for the victim blaming to commence.
July 29th, 2014 at 3:03 pm
Those look like HIS headphones that he retrieved (after he punched her). Maybe the headphones got caught on her arm when she exited the trolley.
July 29th, 2014 at 3:06 pm
All I was saying is that the article states that he grabbed her headphones. They were actually his headphones. I didn’t say it was ok to hit her!
July 29th, 2014 at 3:09 pm
Headphone truthers don’t bother to read the bit at the beginning of the video?
July 29th, 2014 at 3:11 pm
Let me preface this by saying of course he should not have hit her and stolen her headphones.
I was on the trolley sitting near the driver when this happened. The victim came up to the driver door right afterwards and explained to him that she had “aggressively shoved” (her words) the guy because he had been standing in the doorway of the crowded trolley and not moving for people as they exited and it made her mad. She admitted she was wrong to shove him and she shouldn’t have but that he shouldn’t have punched her either and requested that the police be called.
As we waited for police, through the open doors I heard her story to bystanders who came up slowly change until her “bag” “accidentally” “bumped” him. You can see from the video she essentially shoulder-checks him on the way out, he throws a drink at her, and she immediately turns around and flips him off. If it had truly been an accident she would have been confused as to why a drink was being thrown at her. His friends were on the back of the trolley and that may have encouraged the fast escalation of the situation.
This is an instance of two people being jerks to one another and the person who won the being a jerk contest is going to end up in court over it. I wish the person who lost the being a jerk contest hadn’t apparently misled police about what happened.
Hands to yourselves everyone at all times and control your tempers even or especially when people are being jerks on a crowded trolley.
July 29th, 2014 at 3:13 pm
I bet that the kid is closer to fourteen than twenty. I don’t know if it is that we don’t like to admit that young kids are this out of line, or that we don’t like to admit that we got knocked down by a kid, but there is a tendency to add a few years to the age.
July 29th, 2014 at 3:14 pm
Anon, please settle the headphones bit.
July 29th, 2014 at 3:14 pm
Looks like TD is right. At the 00:32 mark he hits her, and at 00:33 she snatches his headphones in retaliation. That escalated quickly, but thankfully it was weapons free, unlike so many videos on the PPD YouTube channel.
July 29th, 2014 at 3:15 pm
I agree; looks like the headphones were his and she squeezed past him on a busy trolley and something on her person (belt, bag, whatever) pulled the headphones off him and she didn’t even realize that (they’re small and weigh almost nothing). He wanted his headphones back, understandably, and then was stuck trying to retrieve them and not have to wait for another trolley (or pay another token). But you can’t throw stuff at other people and you can’t hit them. Especially when, from what it looks like, the woman didn’t intend or even know what happened. I also don’t know why footage of crimes and wanted suspects can’t be shown for fear of reinforcing a stereotype.
July 29th, 2014 at 3:15 pm
He didn’t take her bag. From what I can see, he disproportionately responded to being shoved by the woman on her way passed and having his headphones taken in the process. He obviously shouldn’t have punched her; acknowledging that her behavior wasn’t exactly stellar (including giving him the finger as she exited) doesn’t constitute victim blaming.
July 29th, 2014 at 3:17 pm
Well, Anon adds more info to the story which may affect my opinion. That said, I’ve had plenty of people be rude to me on SEPTA for having to make contact with them when I enter/exit. If someone threw a drink at me I would probably think: business as usual. So for me, this line:
If it had truly been an accident she would have been confused as to why a drink was being thrown at her.
doesn’t ring true.
July 29th, 2014 at 3:19 pm
At :32 seconds you can clearly see he still has his white headphones in his ears when he gets off the trolley and goes after her. Now it could be she tore them off him when he was going after her, but he clearly attacked her for pushing him.
While I understand the concern about stereotypes in the media, there is also still a need to present facts. This was clearly an assault and this person is on the loose.
July 29th, 2014 at 3:20 pm
ANON: I hope you and any other witnesses will attest to the fact that she said she aggressively shoved him (which I think is evident on the video). Again, not justifying him punching her, but she instigated the physical altercation.
July 29th, 2014 at 3:22 pm
WPL, you assume “some measure of justice” is needed here. You assume the black kid stole from the white lady (video evidence clearly shows otherwise). My partner was also on the trolley, and she was a jerk too and shoved the kid hard. He shouldn’t have punched her. She shouldn’t have shoved him. No “justice” is needed here. It was just two people being stupid. Shame on you for “reinforcing stereotypes” — exactly what you espouse not to do.
July 29th, 2014 at 3:22 pm
I don’t see them at :32.
Are you watching on your phone?
And can we all stop to consider why the hell he would want to take this woman’s earbuds in front of everyone on the trolley and then get back on?
July 29th, 2014 at 3:27 pm
Kaytee, I don’t think it’s WPL that wants justice so much as the Philadelphia Police Dept. That’s who created the video and that’s who is looking for the suspect.
July 29th, 2014 at 3:31 pm
I have no idea about the headphones. I was up near the driver the whole time and never heard anything about headphones. It was admittedly noisy with some passengers upset about the trolley having to wait for police because of nonsense they felt the victim instigated unnecessarily. People who lived close by got off and walked but people still a mile or more from their destination felt stuck.
I guess what rings false to me about the giving the finger part if it was an accident was that the response was so immediate. I have a short fuse myself but it takes a beat or two for me to register what happened and get the bird up. Maybe she is quicker on the draw, I don’t know.
Let this be a lesson to people with short tempers who think they’ll be a trolley hero by correcting rude behavior via shoving: no one cares that much. I will admit to getting elbow-y sometimes myself but this instance taught me than more than anything people just want to get home quickly without incident.
July 29th, 2014 at 3:33 pm
I guess the reason I am so bothered about the headphones is that the video claims they are looking for this guy for “robbery.” Seems like he could get wrongly charged.
July 29th, 2014 at 3:36 pm
Sure, the trolley riders experiencing a minor inconvenience are the real victims here.
July 29th, 2014 at 4:02 pm
He DOES have his headphones still on when he first exits the bus. But when he goes to hit her, the headphones are no longer visible like they’re visible when he first leaves the bus. Maybe she grabbed them in retaliation, maybe they accidentally came off in the scuffle. But they are still on him as of :32, so they weren’t snagged on her bag as she left – this happened later. I’m looking on a full-sized PC screen.
If they were his headphones, it is worrisome that this is being classified as a robbery.
July 29th, 2014 at 4:06 pm
I was one of the witnesses who stayed with the woman. Her headphones were stolen by the guy. I saw him take them, get back on the trolley, and then when he knew she called the cops, he fled the scene.
Also, she said she nudged the guy on the way out. She was very straightforward about that and did not change her story. She said he’d been blocking the door for folks for about twenty stops and had made it difficult for her to get on. She never changed her story and told the cops when they came that she’d nudged him. She also told the trolley driver that. She did say that she could have made the same movement if she’d tripped on her way out, of course, and that she would have apologized if it had been a mistake but she never changed her story. I didn’t think she was a jerk and I don’t think she deserved to be punched. And she was robbed which is why the cops are after the guys. Sorry to bust your bubbles, folks.
July 29th, 2014 at 4:36 pm
Also, if you look at that video, that flipping of the bird is happening at the same time as the punch. I think he would have punched her anyway. Might have been kind of a reflexive instinct on her part or something–he had just thrown his drink at her head, too….
July 29th, 2014 at 4:39 pm
Ok, I agree with you that they are on him when he gets off of the bus. But then look at :33, that’s when she grabs them off of his head. When he hits her.
July 29th, 2014 at 4:39 pm
Yeah the kid was definitely taking his headphones back. When he swung at her, she snatched the headphones off of him. And I agree with ANON that she instigated the whole thing. Besides her flipping the kid off, she clearly punches him when it’s not necessary. Look how the other person in front of her exits without any issue.
Not only can we watch the headphones disappear outside the trolley when she grabs them, but we can see him asking for them and pulling them out of her hands.
If the cops are actually trying to pick this kid up for robbery, it’s pretty unfortunate how blatantly racist they are towards the kid.
July 29th, 2014 at 4:48 pm
If you make the video full screen, you can see his white headphones, then as she walks off, she must have hooked them with something. I say this because, after she basically body-checks him, he actually remains standing in the doorway for a split second, then you see his head jerk forward very quickly. Then he goes after her. I think she must have hooked them with her purse or arm and when the slack of the wire was up, they pulled off of her head. Either way, both of them have crossed the line.
July 29th, 2014 at 4:49 pm
OK. I was a witness. I was there and saw it live. She did not take his headphones. He took hers. Sorry if that doesn’t go along with the narrative you want to believe, but that’s the truth. I saw him punch her. I saw him take her headphones out of her ears, take them back on the trolley with her, and then leave the scene. Period.
July 29th, 2014 at 4:50 pm
Sorry, take them on the trolley with *him*.
July 29th, 2014 at 4:56 pm
Anon, I believe you. I have no narrative. Sometimes the situation is simpler than we all like to believe. At the least, he should be arrested for assault. No one should be allowed to be assault anyone like that. It is amazing what guilt can do to a person’s logic. It’s funny how everyone is saying that he is wrongly accused of being a thief, when he just got done punching a woman in the face.
July 29th, 2014 at 5:05 pm
he should not have punched her in the face. no one disputes that. but i still think you’re wrong about the headphones. i can’t see any headphones on the woman (granted the video is very grainy and she is in white). then all of a sudden she has a pair just like the ones that are now missing from his ears/neck.
July 29th, 2014 at 5:06 pm
i can do this all day. i don’t know the man or the woman involved but i’m all about solving the headphone mystery.
July 29th, 2014 at 5:27 pm
I have decided to assign a yellow card on the lady, red on the kid
July 29th, 2014 at 6:55 pm
I’ve had to nudge past people who just stand there, not moving an inch, when the trolley stops. MANY times… It’s very frustrating, and I’ve been a bit more aggressive than I probably should have been after saying, “excuse me”, 2+ times. I seem to continue to forget it’s still Philly, but this video reminded me! That woman deserved a, “Oh, sorry, I didn’t realize I was in the way”…
And, I am wondering along with the first comment… “Uh, how long did you guys have to debate whether or not to post a video of a scumbag who attacked a woman on the street in broad daylight?”
July 29th, 2014 at 7:32 pm
Re: “Uh, how long did you guys have to debate whether or not to post a video of a scumbag who attacked a woman on the street in broad daylight?”
Have a look at the comments here:
http://www.philly.com/philly/news/Police_seek_help_finding_man_who_attacked_woman_exiting_SEPTA_trolley.html
We don’t worry much about race bating in the comments from people in the neighborhood, but inevitably others find their way to the site and it’s a full time job keeping them off.
– Mike
July 29th, 2014 at 7:54 pm
“fear of reinforcing stereotypes”??? You idiots sat on this story for fear of reinforcing stereotypes? So this guy can continue to rob people because some might be offended by his description? That’s it, I’m no longer reading your site as of today.
July 29th, 2014 at 8:02 pm
The Philly Police Department didn’t post the video until TODAY. No news organization has been sitting on this because it wasn’t out until TODAY. TODAY. TODAY? TODAY.
July 29th, 2014 at 8:14 pm
Let’s all give the guy punching a woman in the street the benefit of the doubt when it comes to who owned the headphones.
July 29th, 2014 at 8:38 pm
She totally snagged his headphones… (As he punched her in the face, ouch!) I’m sure the victim was shaken up badly- this was a nasty scuffle, but to call it assault and robbery? I don’t like it. If both parties were black, I doubt anyone would give this video a second look.
July 29th, 2014 at 10:32 pm
This video and story should be taken down, this boy does not deserve to be on blast.
Both parties were wrong and the question I am left asking is why is a 39 year old pushing / hitting a teenager ( he is definitely not 20) for being in the way on the trolley? She absolutely instigated an altercation and it does not seem to show any other headphones other then the ones he is wear. This boy does not look like a thief, he looks like someone instigated and who also made a bad choice.
This woman should be ashamed for calling the cops on him, he could end up with a record for the rest of his life because an adult hit him and started a fight they couldn’t handle.
That is a true shame.
July 30th, 2014 at 12:38 am
This is what I saw:
The woman pushed the man and he reacted by pushing her back, as if to say “how do you like it?” I would have probably reacted the same way. The trolley gets very crowded at RUSH HOUR. It is hard to move out of the way sometimes. The woman was completely out of line. The police should have never even bothered to post this video because if they would have watched it thoroughly, they would have seen that the woman was definitely not the victim here!!!!
July 30th, 2014 at 1:00 am
Rashomon, this ain’t.
July 30th, 2014 at 3:14 am
I ride the same trolley.
There are young men who deliberately stand in the trolley doorway in the back and refuse to move to allow people to exit. People are forced to use the unobstructed doorway, slowing down everyone’s exit — and, therefore, the trolley itself.
This past year, a young man impressed his friends by not allowing this white lady (me) to pass to the trolley doors. When I said excuse me, he called me “Old Head.” (I had to consult Urban Dictionary on that one.) I had to squeeze past him to reach the door when it opened, and yes, it necessitated physical contact. I got a knee in the back as I walked down the trolley stairs.
The incident was very upsetting. Sorry, but these punks know exactly what they’re doing. It’s a form of passive-aggression and I want it to stop.
July 30th, 2014 at 10:41 am
I viewed the video several times. It looks like fault lies with both persons. Although the young man shouldn’t have hit the young lady, it appears they are both at fault. When I’m exiting the trolley and someone is blocking the exit, I say excuse me loudly 2-3 times and they always move.
I just returned from Germany where they have 3-4 trolley cars attached. Philly should consider this concept and help alleviate some of the overcrowding issues at rush hour.
July 30th, 2014 at 2:56 pm
I was on that trolley. I saw the entire thing. She bumped the shit out of him on purpose. He retaliated and that’s when his headphones got grabbed. And he got them back. He hopped back on the trolley because he thought he’d get away with hitting her not with robbery. Who gets on a trolley filled with people after robbing someone?
I got off the trolley and walked after the police were called knowing it would be a long ordeal, but after seeing this I called to make a statement about the incident and wasn’t taken seriously. This is terrible. He was absolutely wrong, and more like 15 or 16 as opposed to 20. She assaulted a child first. He shouldn’t have punched her, but who calls the cops after being assaulted back? She was the original aggressor.
July 30th, 2014 at 3:23 pm
I think we have all been bumped and knocked around on SEPTA. If I punched every person who knocked me over or bumped into me while on SEPTA I would be locked up.
Punching a woman IN THE FACE should not be OK. Why is he not being charged with assault and battery? Why did he think he could get away with punching a woman IN THE FACE and get back on the trolley like nothing was wrong?
These are the questions everyone should be asking.
July 30th, 2014 at 3:37 pm
Could income inequality be the real culprit?
July 30th, 2014 at 6:05 pm
On a macro level, yes, I think many people would agree that issues such as income inequality and persistent, concentrated poverty are at play in this sort of thing. (I suspect many people would see “gentrification” as another macro-level contributor.)
At an individual level, though, I think we need to expect more of young men than hitting women in the street, even if they are pushed first.
July 30th, 2014 at 6:50 pm
I think it’s safe to speculate that if the roles were reversed and the 20-something year old boy (who is black) body checked the 39-year old woman (who is white) and then – even just possibly – stole her headphones, the community would tout her as a hero for jumping off the trolley, punching him, and retrieving her stolen goods back.
July 31st, 2014 at 4:19 am
Personally I have no problem with anything he did even though I wouldn’t have retaliated like he did. This entitled brat purposely shoved a teenager who actually turned sideways to let people off a crowded trolley. The people before her maneuvered around him just fine.
What a drama queen she is for calling the cops, then going to HUP for 2 stitches.
July 31st, 2014 at 2:15 pm
If he’s been charged with theft, and they’re his headphones, the charge should be dropped, and she should be charged with theft, and filing a false police report.
July 31st, 2014 at 4:03 pm
Allison H’s assessment is exactly correct.
If an old white woman punched a young black man for shoving her, people on this site would be calling her a “bad ass”.
July 31st, 2014 at 4:21 pm
Of course they would call her a “bad ass”, but not just an old white woman. Any old woman of any color. And they would because she is an old woman! Don’t you get it? The whole point is that a nearly full grown man of any race or religion or any walk of life shouldn’t be punching an old woman, young woman, child, etc. In fact, they shouldn’t be punching anyone in the face. Can you honestly say that someone bumping into you, intentional or not, deserves to be punched in the face?
July 31st, 2014 at 4:35 pm
Right. And we have rules, legal ones and common sense social ones, against young men punching old women in the face,regardless of instigation. The man/child’s lack of knowledge of these rules, or inability or unwillingness to follow them, make me wonder which other ones he’ll likely break, and whether the harm will be more than a couple of stitches in somebody’s lip.
August 1st, 2014 at 4:39 pm
The kid HIT A WOMAN IN THE FACE. I don’t give a crap what she did to him first, you don’t get to do that EVER. It is assault plain and simple, and when you assault someone you get charged with a CRIME. Yeah, she might have found a better way to express her frustration with him blocking the doorway than pushing her way out the door, but that is totally irrelevant. Newsflash: pushing past someone and flipping them the bird are not CRIMES. Physical violence against another person is a crime. I can’t even believe it merits a discussion. If you watch the video t’s obvious that he took her headphones after the altercation, not the other way around. [edited].
August 4th, 2014 at 2:25 pm
Obviously they were both in the wrong. However, my question is the reporter’s problem with the word stereotype. I hate that word. I also hate the word “profiling”. It is what it is, if it looks like an apple and tastes like an apple, it’s most likely an apple. And as my aunt used to say, “if you can’t take the heat, get out of the kitchen”.
August 4th, 2014 at 8:57 pm
I realize that video is selective, and that the proper response in such circumstances is always to de-escalate and alert the authorities, but it is interesting that in an article explicitly framed around citizens’ responsibilities, precisely none of the 57 comments (including the Zapruder-like analysis of the earbuds) suggested that witnesses had a responsibility to physically intervene after the woman was assaulted.
August 5th, 2014 at 6:20 pm
I wonder if KS who expresses a legal opinion concerning what constitutes an assault is an attorney. Actually, pushing someone intentionally would qualify as such.
August 21st, 2014 at 1:25 pm
Shoving someone intentionally is indeed a crime.
And no, the bystanders did not have any duty/responsibility/anything else to intervene. Bystanders don’t have a duty to intervene in crimes they witness, under the law. And to suggest that bystanders should get involved in random assaults they witness is ridiculous.
August 21st, 2014 at 2:47 pm
With all due respect, I believe that when a young man beats a middle-aged woman, witnesses have a civic, if not a legal, responsibility to intervene, if only to ensure that the beating doesn’t escalate.
More broadly, I believe that each of us, through the exercise of civic virtue, is responsible for the state of our society. In the interests of individual safety and legal liability, we end up asking our teachers, law enforcement officers, and government agencies to solve problems that lie far beyond their ambit. From an individual perspective, this makes sense, but it has allowed things to devolve to the point where they are now. Institutions, whether they be schools, non-profits, or the police, will never be able to compensate for a want of civic virtue. We’re each of us individually responsible for enforcing the social norms on which any decent society depends. Laws alone have never been enough.