Sexual Assault at Port Richmond’s Graffiti Pier Yesterday
A corridor at Graffiti Pier. | Photo by Liz Spikol
Since Conrail moved its coal-carrying operations to Baltimore in the early ’90s, Pier 124 has been a hulking, abandoned ruin at the edge of Port Richmond. Yet graffiti artists from all over the region have given the concrete walls and passageways a second life, making it a vertiable museum of street art, sort of an unsanctioned version of Miami’s Wynnewood Walls. The post-industrial site has become so popular, it attracts sightseers as well as artists.
Perhaps the three people who were at the Pier yesterday were looking at the art; perhaps they were making it. Their names have not been released. But here’s what we do know:
Two women and one guy, all in their early 20s, were walking through Graffiti Pier around 6:30 p.m. when they were stopped by a man they didn’t know. He made small talk with them, then pulled out a gun and led them to a wooded area, where he took their phones, wallets, cash and ID, and sexually assaulted one of the women. He then ran away.
The Special Victims Unit has released a preliminary informational bulletin with the description of the alleged assailant:
He’s a white male, late 20s to early 30s, 5-foot-nine and 200 pounds. He has short brown hair and a scruffy beard, a tattoo on his left arm (possibly a star), and was wearing jean shorts, a white t-shirt and a white Phillies baseball cap.
Anyone with information is asked to call 215.686.8477 to leave a tip, text a tip to 773847 or submit a tip using this online form. Police say all tips are confidential.
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