(NewsSpace.com) – Crime has been on the rise across the United States, with major cities seeing more instances. Philadelphia is one of the metropolitan areas that has seen a jump in violent offenses, particularly in the Kensington neighborhood, where dozens of incidents happen each day. It’s here that police were recently called to investigate a dead body.
On Wednesday, December 13, a bystander noticed a man’s body in a shopping cart and called law enforcement. When they arrived on the scene, they found a male wrapped in a blanket and covered with debris. There was a bloody trail leading to the shopping cart from an abandoned home, where there were more people inside. The victim did not have any identification on him, but estimates put him in his 30s. Authorities noted that he was barefoot and sustained traumatic injuries to his face.
Police took those in the home to the department for questioning but did not charge or detain anyone in connection with the man’s death, though initial reports said there was an arrest made. Philadelphia Police Chief Inspector Scott Small spoke with WPVI-TV and said authorities “don’t know the cause of death” or “if there’s any trauma.” They have deemed the death suspicious and are waiting for the medical examiner to perform an autopsy, including toxicology reports, to answer those questions. They aren’t ruling out an overdose.
A neighbor, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the crime in the city is “already out of hand” and that the fact that someone discovered a dead body in the shopping cart didn’t surprise her, “because it won’t be the first time, that’s for sure.”
As part of the probe, police will be searching for surveillance video that might have captured part or all of the incident leading up to the man’s death. According to SpotCrime, which tracks crime incidents across the country, there were at least 50 incidents, including eight assaults, over the weekend of December 16–17 alone.
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