iradiophilly | News - Two Black Men Arrested in Philly Starbucks (Video); Deadly Crash on I476; Stabbing in Old City

Streaming Radio for Philadelphia
More Music. Fewer Interruptions. Just what you want to hear.

FOLLOW:

News
Talk about what's in the news


The Post

Two Black Men Arrested in Philly Starbucks (Video); Deadly Crash on I476; Stabbing in Old City

by: iradioal - Philadelphia, PA
started: 04/14/18 6:43 pm | updated: 04/14/18 6:43 pm

Two black men were arrested on Thursday at a Starbucks in Center City while they were waiting for a friend to arrive. The incident happened at the coffee shop at 18th and Spruce in Rittenhouse Square around 4:30 in the afternoon. The two men were sitting in the lobby of the store and had not yet ordered anything. Part of the incident was caught on video (see below). You can see their friend arrive just as they were being led off in handcuffs and asking police what did they do. Other people can also be heard saying, "They didn't do anything, I saw the whole thing." You can also hear someone say that the men asked to use the restroom and were told it is only for paying customers per company policy. The manager of the store had called the police and they were arrested for trespassing when they refused to leave. They were released around 1:30 a.m. Friday after Starbucks declined to press trespassing charges. The video has gone viral and sparked outrage over the incident.

UPDATE: Philadelphia Police Commissioner Richard Ross took to Facebook on Saturday afternoon to give a statement about the Starbucks incident and how his officers performed their duties.

Mayor Jim Kenney also tweeted this statement Saturday afternoon: "Heartbroken to see Philly in the headlines for what - at least based on what we know now - appears to exemplify what racial discrimination looks like in 2018. Like all establishments in Philly, Starbucks should be a place where everyone is treated the same." It included a link to the full mayor's statement: https://beta.phila.gov/2018-04-14-mayors-statement-on-incident-at-starbucks-in-center-city/

The Philadelphia Police tweeted this statement on Friday evening: "We are aware of an incident that occurred on 4-12-18 at the Starbucks CafÃ© at 18th and Spruce. The entire incident, including the actions of the responding officers, is under internal investigation. Once we gather all the facts, we will comment further." Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney responded, "I'm very concerned by the incident at Starbucks. I know Starbucks is reviewing it and we will be too. @PhillyPolice is conducting an internal investigation."

Starbucks released the following statement on Saturday: "We apologize to the two individuals and our customers and are disappointed this led to an arrest. We take these matters seriously and clearly have more work to do when it comes to how we handle incidents in our stores. We are reviewing our policies and will continue to engage with the community and the police department to try to ensure these types of situations never happen in any of our stores."

@Starbucks The police were called because these men hadnâ€™t ordered anything. They were waiting for a friend to show up, who did as they were taken out in handcuffs for doing nothing. All the other white ppl are wondering why itâ€™s never happened to us when we do the same thing. pic.twitter.com/0U4Pzs55Ci
â€” Melissa DePino (@missydepino) April 12, 2018

Longer video from the incident:

One person is dead after a pickup truck slammed into the back of a tractor-trailer last night on the Blue Route (I-476) in Montgomery County. It happened at 11:15 p.m. Friday in the southbound lanes near Exit 18 Ridge Pike in Conshohocken/Plymouth Meeting. The pickup truck hit the back of the trailer and was wedged underneath. One person in the pickup was killed. The investigation into the cause of the crash continues.

A card game gone violent ended with two men stabbed in Old City early Saturday morning. Three men were playing cards in an 8th floor apartment on the 100 unit block of Bread Street when it turned sour. One man broke a beer bottle over a second man's head. The second man then stabbed the first man with an unknown object. The third man stayed out of the fracus. Both of the injured men were transported to Hahnemann University Hospital in stable condition.

Weather
This evening, mostly cloudy, temperatures holding up in the 70s through the early evening until starting to drop around 10p to 60s/50s in Center City.

Overnight, becoming cloudy, some showers, big temperature swing next 12 hours, 80s-40s by morning.