Feds charge man accused of looting West Philly Lowe’s, then setting it ablaze during unrest last year
Security footage allegedly shows Derrick Weatherbe hauling armloads of stolen merchandise from the hardware store. Later he tried to sell the items on Facebook, investigators said.
Federal authorities on Friday accused a 29-year-old man of setting fire to a Lowe’s Home Improvement store in West Philadelphia amid the widespread ransacking of businesses that erupted in the city’s Parkside neighborhood during racial injustice protests last spring.
Prosecutors said Derrick Weatherbe, of Philadelphia, was among dozens of people who pillaged the chain outlet at 1500 N. 50th St. on the evening of May 31.
Security footage shows a man authorities identified as Weatherbe among the crowd — wearing a black bandanna with yellow smiley faces and a T-shirt with the word “Hustle” on the front — carting armloads of items including light fixtures, tools, power equipment, and a chainsaw to an awaiting car.
Once he was finished, investigators said, he set the bathroom fixtures aisle on fire using a canister of accelerant, a container of tiki torch fuel, and a lighter he had stolen from the store.
VIDEO: Looting at Lowe’s in West Philadelphia ends after police arrive.
Weatherbe, whose attorney Jeffrey Azzarano declined to comment, was charged in an indictment unsealed Friday with one count of arson of a building involved in interstate commerce — a crime that carries a maximum sentence of 20 years should he be convicted.
He is among a growing number of defendants whom federal prosecutors have charged in connection with the unrest that gripped Philadelphia after the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis. The ParkWest Town Center shopping plaza, where the targeted Lowe’s is located, was one of the hardest hit in the city.
The area was so packed with people taking items from shops at the time the fire was set that firefighters said they had to leave and return with a police escort before they could enter the building to put out the blaze.
That same night, another man driving a forklift stolen from the Lowe’s used it to help smash through the windows of a neighboring Wells Fargo branch and haul away a vault containing $104,000.
Prosecutors charged two men in connection with that crime in July — Raphael Shaw and Xavier Nolley-Hall, both of Philadelphia, who have since pleaded guilty and are awaiting sentencing.
And, as in their case, Weatherbe’s social media posts in the hours after his thefts proved to be his undoing.
Agents with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives said in court filings they used “facial recognition capabilities” and the store’s security footage to identify him as a suspect.
Once they had his name, they tracked down his Facebook account, where Weatherbe had posted for sale several of the items — including an air compressor, an outdoor wall lantern, and a door lock set with identifying stickers still attached.
“Bundles for sale,” he wrote. “All colors, all brands.”
He shared posts on his account in the days that followed noting that large chain stores had insurance that would cover losses from the unrest.