Center City hit by violent mob of teens

A mob of teens injured at least two people and robbed others during a brief rampage Friday night in Center City, police said.

About 9:15 p.m., police started receiving 911 calls of a group of 20 to 40 teens assaulting people. Police found a man on the ground bleeding badly from the head at Walnut and Juniper Streets. He was transported to Thomas Jefferson University Hospital.

A street robbery was reported at 16th and Spruce Streets, police said. An iPhone was taken in that or another robbery. A man was assaulted at 15th and Sansom Streets, police said. Other people also reported being victimized. A man said he saw a group beating a man at Fourth and Walnut Streets. There was also vandalism at 15th and Locust Streets. At least five teens were arrested.

Brian Mishico, who was working the door at Good Dog Bar & Restaurant, said a crowd of about 30 youths, some who looked as young as 12, split into two groups as they walked down 15th Street.

On one side of the street, the marauding youths knocked over a planter at the Aria condominium building. "They just knocked over everything on the street," he said.

On the other side of 15th, kids started randomly fighting pedestrians on the sidewalk in front of the Max Brenner restaurant.

"It's crazy. I've never seen anything like it," Mishico said. "It seems totally random."

A patron at Fado, at 15th and Locust, said that the group then turned left on Locust heading toward Broad and came upon two men and a woman. They started fighting the men, then someone grabbed the woman's hair and punched her in the head.

   -Robert Moran and Phillip Lucas