‘I was extremely terrified’: Center City jogger recounts ‘Chucky’ terror as masked man appears in court

For Blake Fleischer, an early morning jog in Center City last month began like any other.

But it ended in terror, she said, as she recalled running into traffic near City Hall, seeking help as a man wearing a Chucky-style horror mask followed close behind.

“I was extremely terrified,” Fleischer, 40, testified Wednesday in Philadelphia Municipal Court.

There prosecutors presented evidence that they said outlined the way Zymire Hughes scared and harassed more than a dozen pedestrians early the morning of Aug. 12.

Fleischer, who entered the courtroom limping and using a crutch, tearfully recounted the pain of tearing her hamstring as she fled the 22-year-old, who she feared was armed when he asked if she was “ready to die?”

“I thought he was going to attack me,” Fleischer said.

Hughes, who was arrested U.S. Marshals in Las Vegas two weeks after the incident, sat across the courtroom wearing a blue prison jumpsuit and did not speak during the hearing.

Municipal Court Judge Karen Simmons held Hughes for trial on charges of aggravated assault, possessing an instrument of a crime, terroristic threats, simple assault, reckless endangerment, and harassment. But Simmons dismissed charges of disorderly conduct by engaging in fighting as well as flight to avoid apprehension.

The hearing marked the first time that details about Hughes were heard in court after videos of his masked antics went viral across local and national media outlets and social media feeds.

Authorities said the Tioga resident had connections through an employer in Nevada as well as California as they sought his capture and told the public he had likely fled Philadelphia. Following his Aug. 25 arrest, District Attorney Larry Krasner vowed to charge Hughes with a host of crimes.

Prosecutors said Tuesday that surveillance footage recovered from cameras throughout the city had tracked Hughes’ travels, capturing him taking a SEPTA bus from his apartment building near North 23rd and West Venango streets to Center City after 2 a.m. that morning.

They said Hughes donned the horror mask and began harassing pedestrians in the Suburban Station concourse. He ignored a SEPTA transit officer’s request to remove the mask, they said, briefly flashing his face before putting it back on and leaving the area.

He encountered Fleischer around 5:30 a.m. as she jogged near the north side of City Hall, she testified to prosecutors.

The masked man began to chase her, she said, eventually cutting her off as the two got within several feet of each other.

Fleischer said she found herself caught between the facade of City Hall and the man, who held a phone in his left hand while his right hand was concealed behind his back, and she fled.

It was not until the next day — when she awoke in “extreme pain” and experienced trouble walking — that she went to the hospital for her hamstring injury, she said.

Prosecutors also called on detectives from the police department’s Central Division to verify surveillance footage of Hughes’ activity. That included a clip in which it appears Hughes is filming himself and gesturing toward his phone before leaving his apartment to head to Center City.

A SEPTA transit officer later testified that he was able to help detectives identify Hughes because he had interacted with him in 2023 and 2024 while on duty. Detectives added that widely circulated images of Hughes yielded a phone tip that aided their investigation.

Lauren Zitsch, Hughes’ public defender, told Simmons she took issue with much prosecutors’ assertions, particularly the aggravated assault charge.

“You have to show some form of malice” for that crime to stand, she said, noting that the confrontation between Fleischer and Hughes was not captured on video.

But Simmons agreed with prosecutors who argued that by frightening to woman enough for her to run into traffic, Hughes would have understood the “legal and likely consequence” of his actions.

Hughes is expected to appear in court for a formal arraignment in early October.

He has not posted the required 10% of his $100,000 bail and remains in custody at the Philadelphia Detention Center.