Skip to content
Crime & Justice
Link copied to clipboard

Strawberry Mansion man gets long sentence for shooting 4 robbery victims

A 31-year-old man was sentenced Monday in Philadelphia Common Pleas Court to 178 to 416 years in prison for shooting and seriously injuring four people in separate 2015 robberies. Amin "Mac" Ackridge, of Strawberry Mansion, was found guilty by a jury in April of four counts of attempted murder, six counts of robbery, and related offenses for the violent stickups in Kensington and North Philadelphia, including one that left a man paralyzed for life from the waist down.

Amin “Mac” Ackridge was sentenced to 178 to 416 years in prison for shooting four people during separate 2015 robberies in Philadelphia.
Amin “Mac” Ackridge was sentenced to 178 to 416 years in prison for shooting four people during separate 2015 robberies in Philadelphia.Read morePhiladelphia District Attorney's Office

A 31-year-old man was sentenced Monday in Philadelphia Common Pleas Court to 178 to 416 years in prison for shooting and seriously injuring four people in separate 2015 robberies.

Amin "Mac" Ackridge, of Strawberry Mansion, was found guilty by a jury in April of four counts of attempted murder, six counts of robbery, and related offenses for the violent stick-ups in Kensington and North Philadelphia, including one that left a man paralyzed from the waist down.

Ackridge's getaway driver was Frank Oliver III, grandson of former State Rep. Frank L. Oliver of West Philadelphia. The younger Oliver, who was a judicial aide at the Criminal Justice Center until shortly before the crime spree, pleaded guilty to robbery, assault, and gun charges and testified against Ackridge. Oliver was sentenced in May to three to six years in prison.

Oliver drove while Ackridge, whom prosecutors dubbed a "ruthless robber" because of his gratuitous violence, got out of the car and committed the holdups.

Ackridge was robbing two men at gunpoint at Gransback and Clearfield Streets on June 7, 2014, when Robert T. Gotwalt tried to intervene. Ackridge shot Gotwalt, paralyzing him.

A week after the fourth robbery in late July, Oliver was pulled over in Center City and police found a 9mm semiautomatic pistol under the driver's seat. Ejected shell casings found at the shooting scenes matched the gun.

Oliver did not match the physical description of the shooter, but investigators checked his cellphone records and saw that he had calls with Ackridge on the days of the robberies and that their cellphones often pinged off cell towers near the robbery scenes.

Ackridge was arrested Aug. 12, 2015, in Wilmington as he allegedly was about to commit an armed robbery.