As Philadelphia businesses reel from the one-two punch of COVID shutdowns coupled with back-to-back riots that have left already struggling stores vandalized, looted and destroyed, one business owner is now picking up the pieces – literally – of a store he’d finally just put back together after it was looted during the first wave of riots back in May.
“When we heard about the shooting of [Walter Wallace], I had a feeling it was going to happen again,” the owner said. “We had the same thing three and a half months ago, the whole store was grabbed. You couldn’t get any security at that time because it was too late, so we just had to wait until morning. And this is what we see in the morning.”
"I haven't seen anything like this on this scale since Minneapolis back in May." - @Julio_Rosas11 pic.twitter.com/XzQmVLr4I9
— Marina Medvin 🇺🇸 (@MarinaMedvin) October 28, 2020
The latest round of senseless violence was kicked off after police fatally shot 27-year-old Walter Wallace, a black man, in West Philadelphia earlier this week. Officers were responding to a domestic violence call and showed up to find Wallace in the street with a knife. Footage from the scene shows Wallace repeatedly failing to respond to police orders to drop the weapon. Both cops fired multiple times after Wallace moved toward them brandishing the knife.
But despite the fact that Wallace was threatening officers with a deadly weapon at the time he was shot, the incident immediately sparked backlash against the Philadelphia police department and spawned yet another rash of violent riots that have decimated local businesses already struggling to rebound from COVID shutdowns. Looters with Black Lives Matter can be seen on a bevy of videos posted to social media ransacking and looting stores – including black-owned businesses – in downtown Philadelphia. A Five Below and a T-Mobile were among those broken into and burglarized.
BLM rioters break into a @TMobile phone store in Philadelphia and begin looting it. Video by @Julio_Rosas11: pic.twitter.com/7dftWBTEE2
— Andy Ngô (@MrAndyNgo) October 28, 2020
BREAKING: looting is taking place all around Philadelphia. This is a five below store being ransacked by black lives matter protesters pic.twitter.com/HyCzERRjOk
— TheBlaze (@theblaze) October 28, 2020
Here’s the scene inside a local Walmart after rioters trashed and looted the place just before the police showed up and secured the area.
Current state of a Walmart in Philadelphia after looters destroy the store.
— Savanah Hernandez (@sav_says_) October 28, 2020
Store manager currently outdoors talking with the police. pic.twitter.com/tmaxmyGAod
In one particularly stunning scene, a man can be seen wheeling a large stolen appliance, possibly a washing machine or a drier, away on a dolly.
At the BLM riot in Philadelphia, a looter wheels a large appliance out of the store. pic.twitter.com/gmcsebGLDJ
— Andy Ngô (@MrAndyNgo) October 28, 2020