Philly teens aged 10 and 14 turn themselves in over beating death of elderly man

An elderly man in Philadelphia died in the hospital last month after being beaten by a group of teens with a traffic cone. The victim identified as 73-yeear-old James Lambert was attacked for no apparent reason around 2:30 am on June 24th. He died in the hospital for head wounds suffered when he hit the pavement the next day.

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Over the weekend, police announced a $20,000 reward and released video of the attack. It shows 7 teens, four males and 3 females participating in the attack. Police estimated the youngest of the bunch, who was seen filming the attack with a cell phone, was just 13. In fact, he was only ten years old. Today, he and his 14-year-old brother both turned themselves in to the police.

Eyewitness News was outside Philadelphia Police headquarters as two young brothers turned themselves in to authorities around 4 p.m Monday.

Police confirm the brothers are just 10 and 14 years old and were among seven juveniles captured on camera in a violent attack that happened last month in North Philadelphia.

Investigators are still working to identify some of the teens seen in that hard-to-watch security video.

What’s striking about the video is that the teens are clearly smiling and laughing about the attack on Lambert. This was entertainment for them, something they no doubt planned to show their friends later. Lambert’s relatives were shocked by the video and wondered what kind of kids are out in the middle of the night doing something like this.

“I’m sick to my stomach over this,” said Tania Stephens, 63, about the killing of her 73-year-old uncle, James Lambert, who was attacked by teenaged thugs who hit him repeatedly with traffic cones just after 3 a.m. on June 14 as he was walking across Cecil B. Moore Avenue.

“We all can’t stop crying. Who does this? Anyone normal doesn’t beat up and kill a senior citizen walking down the street. Simmie didn’t deserve this.”…

“These kids should come forward,” Stephens said. “Their parents should come forward. Something is very wrong when kids are out at 2 a.m. beating and killing an old man. We’ve lost God, we’ve lost family, what’s happened to us?”

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DA Larry Krasner was asked if there would be any murder charges in this case. “Certainly on the very limited information we have it seems very likely, yes,” Krasner said. But I wouldn’t count on it resulting in any real jail time. Krasner is another progressive DA who doesn’t believe in charging juveniles as adults, so it’s possible these kids will be out in a few years no matter what the charges are.

Here’s the full video of the attack release by police. It requires age verification because of the content so you’ll probably have to watch it on YouTube.

Finally, here’s a local news report about the brothers who turned themselves in today. There’s a bit of the attack video in this but it has been blurred to the point that you can’t see anything at all.

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David Strom 10:00 AM | April 16, 2024
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