Two have been charged for burning a Pennsylvania State Police vehicle, while the feds are looking for another seven… with a $10,000 bounty for information.
The summer of 2020 will be remembered for two things when histories of the era are penned: the Coronavirus and a very human reckoning after a white police officer abused his authority and knelt on the neck of a black man named George Floyd as he writhed on the ground, helpless – corralled by handcuffs as his air was being choked off for nine full minutes.
The national protests that were a natural by-product of the brutality of what happened to George Floyd were mostly non-violent. Nevertheless, this dynamic often can be like holding a book of matches inside a cache of dynamite. If you had to have a packet of matches on the inside, most people would carry it safely sealed in a pocket. Yet, a certain contingent of people would pull that pack out and light the entire pack… the certain contingent who wants nothing more than to watch the whole wretched world burn.
That certain contingent is exactly who the FBI is trying to catch.
Two men have already been charged for their roles in the carnage in Philly. Ayoub Tabri, 25, of Arlington, VA, and Lester Fulton Smith, 26, of Philadelphia were each charged with two counts of arson and one count of obstructing law enforcement. Smith was arrested May 27, 2021 and Tabri was arrested in October of 2020.
The FBI is still looking for seven other individuals connected to arsons in Philly around the time of the protests. All the arson incidents in question occurred in Philadelphia on Saturday, May 30, 2020. The informational flyer below has all the pertinent information including pictures of each of the seven individuals.
If you have any information, you can contact your local FBI field office, the Philadelphia field office at (215) 418-4000. You can also submit your tips at tips.fbi.gov.