2 plead to blowing up ATMs with explosives
of an explosive. He is scheduled for sentencing May 1.
Nasser McFall, 25, of Claymont, Delaware, had pleaded guilty to the same charges in June and was sentenced last week to 6½ years in prison with three years of supervised release. McFall was also ordered to pay a $500 special assessment and $256,083 in restitution.
A third defendant, Kamar Thompson, 37, of Philadelphia, was last scheduled for trial in this case in September 2022. The court record does not indicate his current status, but he is scheduled for sentencing in a separate federal case next month for possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.
Peaceful protests began following the shooting death of Walter Wallace Jr. by a Philadelphia police officer Oct. 26, 2020, and continued into the following days, according to a prior release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office. There was also a period of civil unrest and “widespread incidents of looting and violence in various neighborhoods,” the release adds.
The indictment alleges that McBride, Thompson and McFall conspired to break into a Target in the Port Richmond section of Philadelphia and set off an explosive device to steal money from an
ATM on Oct. 28.
The defendants are also alleged to have broken into a Wawa on Richmond Street the following day and again set off explosive devices in order to steal money from an ATM inside.
All three also set off other explosive devices in two other Wawas in Philadelphia and Claymont in attempts to rob those stores in the same manner, according to the release, and McFall is alleged to have set off an explosive device inside an ATM at a Wells Fargo Bank in Philadelphia on Dec. 2.
“The U.S. Attorney’s Office and the Department of Justice will always support the constitutionally protected right to peaceful protest and freedom of speech,” said former U.S. Attorney Jennifer Arbittier Williams when the charges were announced. “However, there is no right to rob, loot or destroy property while endangering lives, as the defendants are accused of doing here. If you engage in violence and commit a federal crime during periods of civil unrest hoping the turbulence will afford you some cover, rest assured that it will not. As this indictment shows, we will find you, charge you, and you will face the consequences of your actions in federal court.”