ON VIDEO Several arrests for looting stores during a

ON VIDEO | Several arrests for looting stores during a demonstration

About fifteen young people were arrested in Philadelphia in the eastern United States on Tuesday night after they “looted” shops in the city center following a peaceful demonstration against police violence.

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“What happened tonight is that a gang of opportunistic criminals took advantage of a situation and tried to destroy our city,” police Commissioner John Stanford thundered during a news conference on local television that night.

The CBS station and the police officer reported “looting” of Lululemon and Foot Locker clothing stores in downtown Philadelphia by “young people” starting at 8:00 p.m. local time (0:00 GMT) and during part of the night.

Officer Stanford announced “15 to 20 arrests” and promised that police would “continue to make arrests.”

According to local media, a peaceful rally took place late in the day in Philadelphia after a city judge dismissed a prosecutor’s charges against a police officer who killed a motorist in August.

The events were filmed and Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner charged that officer, Mark Dial, 27, in early September with the “murder” and “intentional killing” of Eddie Irizarry, also 27.

Commissioner Stanford insisted the night’s looting had “nothing” to do with the Irizarry protest.

Prosecutor Krasner, who is said to be committed to the left and committed to the fight against police violence, appealed the judge’s decision to release police officer Dial on Tuesday evening and promised to “reopen all criminal cases, including murder, against the defendant.” .

In early September, prosecutors released the particularly violent video, shot on Dial’s body-worn camera, showing his intervention with a colleague on August 14 in Philadelphia.

We saw the two police officers in their car following Mr. Irizarry’s before the two vehicles stopped side by side and the officers approached the driver’s door of the victim’s sedan on foot and armed.

Audio and staccato images showed a man screaming “I’m going to shoot you now” and shooting six times at the driver’s side window.

The two officers were then seen circling around the vehicle, one of them still pointing his gun at it, opening the doors and using his camera to film the victim bleeding and dying in his seat.

Irizarry “died from multiple gunshot wounds, a death that is ruled a homicide,” the indictment says.