A group of seven teenagers beat a 73-year-old man to death with a traffic cone. The incident took place in Philadelphia, United States, on June 24, but the case went viral because local police released images of the violent attack to arrest the killers. Giacomo Lambert, the grandfather attacked, was hospitalized, but died the next day from his injuries.

His family is still upset by the crime. Tania Stephens, 63, Lambert’s niece, told the New York Post that “I have a bad stomach for this. We can’t stop crying. Who can do such a thing?” Any normal does not hit and kill an old man walking down the street. Simmie didn’t deserve it. ”

The video of the horrific event, released last Friday by the Philadelphia Police Department, shows Lambert trying to get away from the boys as they chase him and throw him to the ground. They hit the man with the cone several times and when he tries to get up and run, they knock him down again. All this, amid the laughter of young people.

James Lambert, a construction retiree, went out of his way to take care of Tania’s mother, her sister Elsie, now 85, and her 11 children. And it’s that Tania’s father died when she was only 12, he explains. Thus, many family members, including her uncle, lived together in a large house in the Fairmount area.

The victim, who has always resided in Philadelphia, never married and had two daughters and three grandchildren. Also, in the 1960s, she was able to overcome a heroin addiction.

Simmie was so fond of Elsie that she often went to her house for dinner. In fact, she was where she was just hours before her murder. “My mother gave him rotisserie chicken, mac and cheese and a bagel,” Tania remembers.

Almost every year, the family also gathered to spend Thanksgiving together. Stephens says he doesn’t know why his uncle left at 2am, but he confirms he took the usual route.

There are no inmates

None of the teenagers seen in the video attacking Lambert have been arrested so far. The Philadelphia Police Department is offering a $ 20,000 reward for information leading to the whereabouts of the perpetrators. A police spokesperson told The Post on Saturday that there were no new developments in the case.

“These children should show up, their parents should deliver them,” Tania said. Also, she added that “something is wrong when the boys go out in the middle of the night beating and killing an old man. We lost God, we lost family, what happened to us?

Curfew

The news of the attack comes the day after the curfew for minors enters into force. Until September 29, people aged 14-17 must be home by 10pm Previously, the last that some teens were allowed to go out was until midnight. Children under 13 must be home by 9.30pm.

The modified curfew is an attempt to keep young people off the streets and safe during a season of high crime, officials said.

We are seeing our young people involved in more criminal incidents, criminal activities simply because they are late, ”Councilor Katherine Gilmore Richardson, who proposed the bill that changed the curfew, told WPVI.

For those who violate the curfew, the police will try to reunite them with their families at home or in an enclosure or take them to one of the many community centers set up for this purpose.