Many people who are arrested and held by the police dream of crashing out of the police station. But earlier this month, one man decided to crash into a police station.
One would think that the lobby of a police station is one of the safest places one can be.
But according to the Philadelphia police, Dieufort Joly, 26, drove his Hyundai Tucson into the lobby of the 2nd Police District station on Castor Avenue in Northeast Philadelphia at 1:40 PM on April 21.
I know the police station, having been there several times regarding incidents that involved Defense Department personnel when I did security work as a Defense Department civilian at the nearby U.S. naval base on Tabor Road some years ago. I have stood in that lobby waiting to see detectives, just like the six people who were in the lobby when the car crashed through the glass front.
Philadelphia Police Commissioner Kevin Bethel at a press conference said that the car crash was clearly a deliberate act.
“Based on what we’ve received so far, there’s nothing that would indicate that the individual would be mad at police,” Bethel said to reporters. “I don’t know what could have caused that other than somebody who’s in a different state of mind.
“We are working with our terrorism task force; we have been on the phone with our special agent in charge of the FBI. We’re looking at all the angles, and we will make those determinations if it gets to the threshold where it’s considered a terrorist act.”
Joly was arrested after he left his vehicle. He was taken to Jefferson Torresdale Hospital for treatment. The five people in the lobby were struck by debris.
“We are very, very fortunate today that those individuals were not seriously injured,” Bethel said.
The Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office (DAO) announced they approved the following charges for defendant Dieufort Joly:
Six counts of:
One count of:
According to the DAO, exterior footage shows Dieufort Joly driving down Castor Avenue.
“Joly made a hard right turn into the entrance of the Police District Building and missed two wooden barricades positioned in front. Interior video shows the vehicle, a 2007 Hyundai Tucson, break through the entrance of the building and come to a full stop inside the lobby,” the DAO stated. “Once the vehicle stops, Joly exits the driver’s seat and is eventually detained. Of the six complainants, no one was seriously injured. Defendant Dieufort Joly has been arraigned, and bail is set at $1.7 million dollars. This is an active and ongoing investigation.”
“The Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office is specially assigning one of our excellent and more experienced prosecutors to work collaboratively with our partners at the Philadelphia Police Department,” said District Attorney Larry Krasner. “We are committed to ensuring a fair, appropriate, and just outcome for the terrible incident that occurred at the Police District Building. Thankfully, no one experienced serious physical injuries, although the emotional and mental impact is very real. Our thoughts are with the victims impacted and our first responders who were in the building at the time. The DAO’s Victim Services Team has begun making outreach to all those impacted and ensure they are connected with resources and services.
“We understand how traumatic this was for civilians, we understand how traumatic this was for anyone in law enforcement who may have witnessed it or even heard the crash of this vehicle,” Krasner said. “This is not a vehicle that was moving five miles an hour. It was coming through the glass front of this new police district at a high rate of speed.”
“The video is shocking. The video is terrifying, and frankly, it almost looks miraculous that there's no one right in the immediate path,” Krasner said.
Assistant District Attorney Angela Brennan, chief of the DAO’s Major Trials Unit, added, “We will continue to work with our law enforcement partners during this investigation and ensure vertical prosecution from charging through each step of the criminal justice process.”
Joly, who is from Haiti, had his passport taken from him.
Joly is being held on ten percent of $1.7 million bail.
