Social Media Users Help ID Suspects In Alleged Assault Of Same-Sex Couple In Center City
By Tim Jimenez
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Police are using social media to help identify the suspects in a brutal attack on a gay couple in Center City -- and it appears that it may be working.
A picture has surfaced on social media that apparently shows the suspects dining at a nice restaurant before the attack.
FanSince09 is known for his tweets on Philadelphia sports, but with police trying to identify around a dozen suspects, he was compelled to act.
"I was happy to see that as many people were as outraged as I was," he said. "And enough people really wanted to make something happen, and everybody really kind of banded together for this."
He was hoping some of his 7,000 plus followers would be able to help police. In one case, someone tweeted an alleged picture of the suspects before the attack at a Rittenhouse Square restaurant and others followed suit.
"They would send me Facebook profiles or photos," he said, "and I would kind of match them with what I would see in the video."
FanSince09 then sent that information to Detective Joseph Murray of the Philadelphia Police Department, who passed that on to those working on the case.
This is how Twitter is supposed to work for cops. I will take a couple thousand Twitter detectives over any one real detective any day.
— Joseph Murray (@PPDJoeMurray) September 17, 2014
Police said they had been contacted by some attorneys who say their clients were looking to talk to investigators about the attack.
As of Wednesday evening, no one had turned themselves in to authorities and no arrests had been made.
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