“YOU CANNOT CATCH ME BEHIND THIS MASK”!!! BELIEVE IT OR NOT, AUTHORITIES SAY 22-YEAR-OLD ZYMIRE HUGHES TERRORIZED DOZENS OF PEOPLE ACROSS PHILADELPHIA WHILE WEARING A HALLOWEEN MASK… AND HE HAS NOW BEEN ARRESTED IN LAS VEGAS FACING A SLEW OF CRIMINAL CHARGES.
A 22-year-old man sought by police for allegedly terrorizing multiple people in Philadelphia while wearing a Halloween mask has been captured in Las Vegas, authorities said.
The Philadelphia Police Department had been searching for 22-year-old Zymire Hughes following the alleged incidents in Center City.
According to investigators, Hughes lives in Las Vegas and was visiting Philadelphia when he harassed local residents, WPVI-TV reported.
The alleged encounters took place earlier in the month during morning hours.
On the morning of August 12, Hughes approached a woman jogging in Center City Philadelphia, according to police.
Hughes asked the runner, “Are you ready to die?,” police said.
He then chased her through the street.
The pursuit caused the woman to injure her hamstring and spine, the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office said in a Friday, August 21, news release.
Video shared by the Philadelphia Police Department shows the chase.
That footage captured the encounter ending with Hughes allegedly fleeing into a train station.
But the jogger was not the only person targeted that morning.
Hughes is accused of running after and terrorizing more than a dozen people while masked that day, according to WPVI-TV.
Authorities said he hid his face behind a Chucky-style Halloween mask during the alleged encounters.
On Thursday, August 20, Philadelphia Police Capt. Jason Smith addressed the possible motive during a news conference.
Capt. Smith said he believes Hughes was possibly terrorizing people “purely for social media content — either A, for his own sick personal amusement, or B, he had plans of posting it online at some point, and possibly monetizing it,” WPVI-TV reported.
Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner also condemned the alleged conduct in an August 21 statement.
Krasner said that “regardless of his motive, his actions demonstrate that he is a punk and will not be tolerated.”
Before Hughes was taken into custody, the district attorney’s office outlined the pending legal response.
The office stated that Hughes was expected to face a slew of charges.
Those expected charges include aggravated assault and simple assault.
They also include terroristic threats.
In addition, prosecutors cited charges of possession of an instrument of crime and reckless endangerment of another person.
Then investigators traced Hughes’s route out of the state.
An investigation revealed Hughes left Philadelphia on August 19, according to CBS News.
He took a flight from the Trenton-Mercer Airport in Ewing, New Jersey, that landed in Orlando, Florida.
At some point afterward, Hughes allegedly flew to Las Vegas.
Federal authorities soon tracked him down across the country.
U.S. Marshals arrested Hughes in Las Vegas at 8 p.m. the evening of Tuesday, August 25, the U.S. Marshals Service Philadelphia announced in a post shared to X.
“He was not a happy man being brought into custody,” Supervisory Deputy U.S. Marshal Robert Clark said, per WPVI-TV.
Clark serves with the Eastern Pennsylvania Violent Crime Fugitive Task Force.
“By hiding behind a Chucky-style Halloween mask, Hughes terrorized Philadelphia residents and believed he could evade law enforcement. He was wrong,” Clark said, according to CBS News.
“His arrest should send a clear message: You can hide your face, but you can’t hide from the elite investigators of the U.S. Marshal Service.”
Hughes was detained at the Clark County Detention Center in Las Vegas.
And he will be extradited to Pennsylvania, according to U.S. Marshals Service Philadelphia.
It was not immediately clear whether Hughes had retained legal counsel.
The charges are allegations and have not been proven in court.
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