Six teens arrested in series of Center City attacks that left four people injured

Philadelphia police have arrested six teens in connection with a series of Center City assaults last week that left at least four people injured.

The teens, a group of boys and girls who range in age from 13 to 15, surrendered to police in the days following the attacks, Philadelphia Police Inspector Raymond Evers said Monday. The teens face charges including aggravated assault, simple assault, recklessly endangering another person, and conspiracy.

Police did not identify the teens publicly because they are being charged as juveniles. Evers, however, said Monday that all of them attend Germantown’s Anthony Wayne Academy, which has been cooperating with authorities’ investigation. None of the teens had prior arrests.

The attacks all took place the afternoon of Nov. 20 within about an hour of one another, police said.

The first assault took place at around 3:15 p.m., when a group of teens assaulted a man experiencing homelessness at 15th and Chestnut Streets, Evers said. Police have not yet been able to find the man, whom investigators saw being attacked in surveillance footage, and are continuing to search for him.

Minutes later, around 3:20 p.m., a second assault occurred at 17th and Chestnut Streets in which a 24-year-old woman was approached by a group of teens who pushed her to the ground and struck her in the back of the head three times before fleeing the scene. The woman, whom police did not identify, was treated for a concussion at Einstein Norristown Hospital, police said.

At 3:45 p.m., a 31-year-old man was struck in the face and head by a group of assailants while he was walking on the 200 block of North 19th Street.

And at 4:10 p.m., a 41-year-old woman was approached by a group of teens near 2001 Pennsylvania Ave., and was punched in the head several times.

Aside from the first victim, the other people who were assaulted suffered bruises, scrapes, and other minor injuries, Evers said Monday.

After announcing the assaults last week, Evers said, police received an influx of tips. The teens turned themselves in while accompanied by their parents on Nov. 21 and 22.

“They knew that these are my kids, and they took responsibility for that,” Evers said. The parents, he added, have been cooperating with police in the investigation.

A motive in the attacks has not been established, and all of the assaults were unprovoked, Evers said. Police are currently working to determine what led to the assaults.

“They go to a good school, [and have] good parents — they should be doing good things,” Evers said. “We’re not sure what happened here.”