A 25-year-old man was charged with participating in this weekend’s Philly car meetups
Police say Deonte Vincent sped his vehicle toward two officers though neither was hit.
A 25-year-old man has been charged with aggravated assault and related crimes for driving his car toward officers who had been attempting to break up one of nearly a dozen illegal car meetups throughout the city over the weekend, authorities said.
Deonte Vincent of Tacony sped his vehicle toward two officers who had sought to detain someone at a meetup in Rhawnhurst on Saturday night, prosecutors said. Neither the officers nor the bystander was hit, officials said, but Vincent did strike the bystander’s car before driving away.
Vincent’s arrest marks the second criminal case to be filed in the aftermath of a night of mayhem that began late Saturday and spread from Northeast to Southwest Philadelphia and just outside City Hall.
The chaos attracted widespread attention on social media, with photos and videos spreading quickly and showing hundreds of people dressed in costumes and masks while drag racing, doing doughnuts, exploding fireworks, and jumping onto moving police vehicles. Participants dubbed the night’s events “Project X.”
A host of officials said Thursday that they were continuing to investigate the incidents — using those same videos and social media posts to try to identify perpetrators. Deputy Police Commissioner Frank Vanore said police have identified nearly 40 cars across the various scenes, and five of them have been seized to be searched.
About two dozen people were given citations that night, Vanore said, and some could end up facing additional criminal charges.
Vanore and others, including First Assistant District Attorney Robert Listenbee, said the illegal meetups were dangerous and destructive, and would not be tolerated. They said law enforcement was continually monitoring social media to proactively identify potential gatherings and would work to ensure accountability afterward.
“If you engage in these kind of illegal [meetup] activities, drifting activities … we are going to do everything we can to arrest you and prosecute you,” Listenbee said.
Still, Vanore acknowledged that police had been aware of the possibility for meetups over the weekend, but that the scale and persistence of the gatherings caught authorities by surprise — leading a handful of officers to respond to an incident with hundreds of participants, only for the crowd to disperse and gather again elsewhere.
“The scope, the locations, the timing of this was not evident” in advance, Vanore said.
Car meetups, also known as “takeovers” or “slide shows,” have been going on for years, and are not unique to Philadelphia. One driver who spoke to The Inquirer earlier this week said drivers from states including New York, North Carolina, and Virginia had decided to gather in the city as a final ode to summer.
But the spectacles quickly grew unruly, and remained that way throughout the night.
One person was arrested earlier, police said: Jhonny Martinez, 19, of Upper Darby, was charged with recklessly endangering another person after crashing into a pole in South Philadelphia while fleeing officers.
Vanore said that a 17-year-old girl from Delaware, who attended with one of the participants, was hospitalized after being struck by fireworks — and that doctors initially thought she had been shot.
He said detectives were continuing to review that incident and many others.
“We are nowhere near done,” Vanore said.
Editor’s note: An earlier version of this article provided an incorrect last name for Deonte Vincent.