Philadelphia businesses put up signs begging for looters to leave them alone as thieves ran rampant for the third night amid unrest over the police shooting death of a 27-year-old black man.
“We work here and live here,” a large sign read on a boarded-up storefront in a devastated area of the City of Brotherly Love, photos show.
“It’s been looted already,” another store said on its boards, explaining that the Cambridge Beauty Supply store was family-run and had been in the area for 30 years.
The store owner’s daughter, Christine Baik, told the National Review that it was targeted Tuesday night during wild looting sprees, with “glass shattered all over the floor.”
A person uses a fire extinguisher to put out a burning barricade in Philadelphia on October 27, 2020, during a protest over the police shooting of 27-year-old Walter Wallace. (Photo by Gabriella AUDI / AFP) (Photo by GABRIELLA AUDI/AFP via Getty Images)
The looters terrified them, she said, claiming some in the mob fired guns — and targeted a local pharmacy twice.
While not a repeat of the estimated 1,000 looters police say struck Tuesday night, Wednesday was the third night protesters flooded the streets after the deadly police shooting of Walter Wallace, a 27-year-old mentally ill black man brandishing a knife.
Two men and a woman were arrested for looting a Rite Aid, WPVI said, with police telling the station that they may have been armed. A cellphone store and a Lord & Taylor were also targeted, the station said.
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“It is clear many of these folks are in no way honoring the memory of Walter Wallace Jr.,” Mayor Jim Kenney said in a briefing Wednesday shared by WPVI, stressing that they were defying Wallace’s family’s own wishes.
“By looting, people are not only harming many retail businesses that have struggled in the midst of the pandemic, but they are doing a great disservice to the many others who want to exercise their First Amendment rights by protesting.”