Three weeks after the tragic killing of 73-year-old Philadelphia resident James Lambert Jr., a police officer shared his touching tribute to the fallen citizen.
According to Breitbart, Jonny Castro is a forensic artist for the Philadelphia Police Department. While he primarily creates portraits of fallen officers, he decided to honor Lambert, who was allegedly beaten to death by a group of teens on June 24.
“James Lambert was known by his friends and family as ‘Simmie’ and was a lifelong resident of Philadelphia,” Castro wrote in a Facebook post with a picture of the portrait.
“Even in his 70’s, he took a great amount of pride in his appearance. His niece said James still dressed with style each and every day. He was at his 85-year old sister’s house for dinner just hours before the violent attack, and would regularly visit his family members who all still live in the area.”
Lambert was ambushed near Cecil B. Moore Avenue and North 21st Street in Philadelphia at 2:38 a.m. on June 24, WCAU reported.
Police said a group of juveniles consisting of four boys and three girls allegedly attacked Lambert, and some of them used a traffic cone to beat him to death.
In a video released on YouTube by the Philadelphia Police Department, a person in a hoodie could be seen swinging a traffic cone and striking Lambert, who is blurred out in the footage.
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A second person picked up the cone and threw it at him, and the same person could be seen chasing Lambert off screen with the cone over her head as he apparently tried to escape.
WARNING: The following video contains images that some viewers may find disturbing.
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“It’s so evil, how could you do that to a person,” Lambert’s sister Elsie Stephens told WCAU. “You have a mother and a father, how could you just beat a man until you take off half of his skull.”
Police said Lambert was taken to a local hospital and later died of his injuries.
On Friday, police said 14-year-old Gamara Mosley was charged with third-degree murder and conspiracy in connection to Lambert’s death, KYW-TV reported. She had turned herself in two days prior.
Another suspect in the attack, 14-year-old Richard Jones, turned himself in Monday morning. He was charged with third-degree murder.
Jones’ 10-year-old brother also turned himself in, but he was subsequently released, KYW-TV reported.
This heinous crime committed by young children paints a damming picture of Democrat-run Philadelphia. Sadly, it was not an isolated incident.
The victim of this attack, was James Lambert Junior. Photo from his obituary. @FOX29philly pic.twitter.com/wlsakaKtNX
— Steve Keeley (@KeeleyFox29) July 8, 2022
According to police data, there had been 292 homicide victims as of July 16, 2022. This was just a 3 percent decrease from last year’s record-setting pace at this time.
For further comparison, the 292 homicide victims in this time frame represented 65 more killings than the same period in 2020 and 114 more than 2019.
As long as Democrats hesitate to prosecute criminals and push soft-on-crime policies, this troubling increase in killings is likely to continue.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
