District Attorney Larry Krasner said that, his office has been charging and arraigning individuals involved in second degree felony burglaries.
“I think it would be fair to describe most of these as looting cases,” Krasner said in an interview with NBC10 Monday. “They are often situations in which people are caught inside of a store… within Macy’s or at some other location.”
For the looting and burglary, Krasner said it has mostly been 18- to 24-year-olds from Philadelphia in what he called crimes of opportunity. Many of them, he said, were first time offenders.
Police have said they are looking through surveillance and news video to try to identify perpetrators.
You can read: Police search for out-of-town instigators on violence in Pennsylvania
So far, he said, the looting videos have shown different crowds from those protesting.
“They don’t seem to be carrying signs, talking about political issues or talking about police accountability, they don’t seem to have t-shirts on that are political in nature,” he said. “They seem to be committing opportunistic crimes and they seem to be doing it within the context of peaceful protest.”
Police had arrested 429 people as of Monday afternoon, of which 165 had been charged with felonies or misdemeanors, according to city officials.
Police found a few people among the protesters with guns, Krasner said. So his office has charged three people with illegal gun possession charges. One of those individuals charged had a criminal record, including convictions of ethnic intimidation, which Krasner described as “concerning.” The man is also from Philadelphia.
Noticias Newswire
