Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, once the heart of the American Revolution and one of the most beautiful cities in the country, is now a den of crime, crime, and yet more crime, with a heavy dash of open-air drug use and vagrancy added. That aspect of the once-fabulous city reared its ugly head again on Wednesday, when a man trying to rob a corner store was shot dead while stuffing his pockets with cash.
The incident reportedly happened at Happy Day Food Market at South 58th Street and Whitby Avenue at just after 10:30 p.m. on the night of Wednesday, October 25th. That’s when a man who was partially masked entered the corner market, went behind the store’s counter, and started stuffing his pockets with cash from the register.
The store’s clerk was armed and ready, however. Instead of cowering in fear or fleeing, the clerk opened fire with the firearm he was carrying, shooting the robber dead. The clerk is in his early twenties. Police, when they responded to the scene of the incident, found the alleged robber on the floor with multiple gunshot wounds and cash protruding from his pockets.
The first responders pronounced the would-be thief, 28 years old, dead at the scene of the incident. Two other employees and one other customer were at the store at the time the shooting occurred, and no one was injured other than the would-be robber who was shot dead. The clerk is reportedly cooperating with investigators and the incident is being treated as a case of self-defense.
Philadelphia Police Chief Inspector Scott Small, commenting on the matter, said, “You can clearly see that there’s money on the scene and you can clearly see that at least one of the 28-year-old’s pockets is stuffed with money. We believe that was the money that he was taking from the cash register during the robbery when he was shot by the store employee.”
The corner market had been robbed at least once before this incident. Sadly, such robberies are nothing new nor rare in the struggling city, and the Philadelphia Police Department’s Facebook page is a steady stream of pleas for help in identifying robbery suspects.
A recent such plea links to a page on the crime blotter site that provides, “On October 23, 2023, at approximately 2:35am, an unknown black male broke the window of Philly Style Pizza & Grill located at 2010 North Broad Street. Once inside the suspect took money from the register and fled. The suspect arrived at and left the location as a passenger in what appears to be a white Kia SUV with a portion of the right rear taillight out or broken.”
Similarly, another plea for help asks the public to assist in identifying those behind a looting, saying, “The Philadelphia Police Department Northeast Detective Division is seeking the public’s help identifying the individuals seen in the following video clip. On September 27, 2023, numerous individuals are wanted for looting/ commercial burglary at the Marshall’s located at 9169 Roosevelt Blvd.”
