Philadelphia police arrest 2 more people in connection with illegal car meetups
Philadelphia police announced the arrest of two more people in connection with a string of illegal car meetups that disrupted city streets during the overnight hours of September 21.
For over a month, police have vowed that those involved would be held accountable for their role in the illegal activity, some of which included: taking over street intersections, setting off fireworks in the streets, doing doughnuts, street racing, drifting and engaging in other reckless activities.
In an update Friday, police identified the two people arrested as David French, 21, of Northeast Philadelphia, and Juawarn Williams, 21, of Rosedale, Maryland. According to police, French was arrested back on Wednesday, Oct. 23, at his home. French was charged with causing risking catastrophe, recklessly endangering another person, criminal conspiracy, reckless driving and other related offenses.
Police said they arrested Williams on Thursday, Nov. 7 while he was home. Williams was charged with causing risking catastrophe, recklessly endangering another person, criminal conspiracy, fleeing a police officer and other related offenses. Police did not immediately provide a photo of Williams.
In total, police said they've arrested nine people across several states, two of which are considered major arrests. The Philadelphia Police Department is working with social media companies, like Meta, to shut down accounts that organize the meetups to ensure they don't happen again.
"We're going to try to lock up every person who came into our city and first, disrespected my men and women, disrespected our city and what we stand for," Philadelphia Police Commissioner Kevin Bethel said. "We'll play the game in here, we'll do our stuff, right? We'll do the little skirmishes. But how dare you."
According to police, more than 50 cars and offroad vehicles have been identified as part of the meetups. More than 30 of them have since been impounded.
Last month, police arrested two men, including a key organizer of one of the car meetups, 21-year-old Joseph Cavanaugh from Levittown, and 20-year-old James Hare from Northeast Philadelphia. Prior to this, police arrested 18-year-old Shane Thomas in Montgomery County.
The car meetups began at around 9:30 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 21 and ended at 4:33 a.m. Sunday, Sept. 22. During those overnight hours, officers responded to several locations finding crowds ranging from 50 to 200 vehicles gathered throughout city streets engaging in reckless activity and some even vandalizing police vehicles.
