Philadelphia police are asking for the public’s help in identifying a man caught on surveillance video as he attacked and punched three women walking down a residential street.
The women were walking along Morris Street at about 11:30 p.m. Wednesday when the man steps alongside them, the video shows.
Without warning, he hits one of them so hard she falls to the street. As her friend tries to help her, the man punches the friend in the head, knocking her into a parked car.
The third woman tries to intercede, only to be thrown into a wall, where the man is seen swinging his fists at her head and body.
“They were screaming so loud,” a neighbor told KYW-TV. “They were screaming for their lives.”
Warning: The below video contains graphic images.
In the footage, the man then paces the sidewalk for several minutes before nonchalantly walking away.
The unprovoked assault left neighbors anxious.
“It was just ridiculous the way he was beating that young lady. And the other two ladies, they were helpless,” another neighbor said. “They tried their best. Two of them jumped on him and he threw them to the ground.”
A woman who lives nearby told the station, “I’m at the point when it gets dark, I just don’t leave my house.”
On Thursday, amid surging crime, violence and police shortages, officials announced a partnership between Philadelphia and the Pennsylvania State Police which will increase law enforcement presence in the city’s hardest areas.
“It’s something they did in the 90s and they are doing it again,” Philadelphia Police Chief Inspector Frank Vanore said Thursday. “It’s a force multiplier. It’s another unit that we have out there patrolling our very busy streets.”
In a recent survey by the Pew Charitable Trusts, more than 63% of Philadelphia residents said their city was seriously on the wrong track in the highest level of anxiety since the Great Recession.
Only 44% of respondents said they felt safe in their neighborhoods at night and 65% reported hearing gunshots outside their homes in the past year.
“We’re looking for help any way we can get it,” said Inspector Vanore.