PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — The girlfriend of a man killed by state troopers at one of several reported illegal street racing meets in the city over the weekend is speaking out and questioning police tactics.
According to police, after illegal street racing meets had been broken up in Mayfair and Bustleton, state troopers were called to a stretch of I-95 shortly before 3:30 a.m. Sunday, where there were reports of vehicles racing, doing “burnouts” and “drifting,” with crowds of spectators standing around completely blocking the road.
Before state police arrived at the I-95 scene, there had been a report of shots fired, as well, police said.
Police said they tried to contact 18-year-old Anthony Allegrini Jr. of Glen Mills in his car. They say he wouldn't yield, and he hit two troopers in the process, giving them minor injuries. That's when they say one trooper drew his weapon and shot at Allegrini, killing him.
His girlfriend, Reagan Hocking, described her emotions to NBC10.
"I was just mad at the world. Why would somebody do this? Who would do this?"
Hocking said she met Allegrini about a year and a half ago and had been dating most of that time. Allegrini was a car enthusiast, and he got his love of cars from his dad, she said. He was just about to turn 19, and she said he had been looking forward to a successful union career.
"I would just tell him how much I loved him and how much I would want to make his dreams come true. I'm gonna try my hardest to make all of those dreams come true in the future."
Hocking said she was not with Allegrini at the meet on Sunday morning, but she had been at others with him. The illegal street takeovers, which happen in cities like Philadelphia and Chicago, feature drivers racing and performing stunts with their cars. They can be organized quickly and, when police break them up, participants can reorganize and reconvene in minutes somewhere else in the city.
The president of Fraternal Order of Police Lodge No. 5, John McNesby, told reporters that, in one incident on Saturday night, someone threw a brick through an officer’s windshield.
Video circulating on social media showed I-95 southbound completely blocked by the Sunday morning event, and cars dangerously circling, spinning and drifting among unprotected crowds of spectators.
A similar incident in Wildwood last fall left 2 people dead.
Hocking says the police are the problem, and she questions the state trooper’s use of force.
"I think it is innocent fun kids are having until the police get involved," she told NBC10.
"I do agree that that might not be the most safe thing to do in the world, but what's not safe is a cop showing up and killing an innocent life, and those two incidents have no correlation at all. The fact is an innocent life was killed, and that's that.”
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She questions the state trooper’s use of force, and she says she doesn’t believe the police are giving the public the honest truth, claiming that Allegrini did not hit any troopers.
"He had two witnesses in the backseat of his car, who are now home from the police department, who have said that he had not struck any police officers."
She also does not believe that he was behind the wheel of his car when he was shot, citing videos that other people at the car meet took as they drove by.
Pennsylvania State Police and the district attorney are investigating.
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