Philly police release video of 7 teens wanted in traffic cone beating death of 73-year-old man

Philadelphia police are looking for seven teenagers they say attacked and killed a 73-year-old man last month, knocking him to the ground with a traffic cone and striking him several times.

Police have released a video of the attack and have announced a $20,000 reward for information leading to arrests of the four males and three females they say were involved in the homicide death of James Lambert Jr..

Lambert was crossing Cecil B. Moore Avenue near 21st Street at 2:38 a.m. on June 24 when video shows him initially approached from behind by three youths, one of whom, a male, throws a traffic cone at him, apparently knocking him to the sidewalk. Lambert is blurred out in the video.

While he remained at the same spot on the sidewalk, a girl in the trio picks up the traffic cone and throws it at Lambert, who then appears to stagger down Cecil B. Moore, followed by the girl, who retrieves the traffic cone and throws it at him again. She is wearing a bright pink long-sleeved sweater, with matching pool slide sandals. White-framed sunglasses are propped on top of her head.

As many as seven youths had gathered by that point. Video shows them talking before leaving the area.

Lambert suffered head injuries and died the next day, police said.

While addressing the media, Capt. Jason Smith urged parents of the youths to first contact an attorney and then make arrangements to turn their children in to the Homicide Unit.

Lambert’s niece, Tania Stephens, told Fox 29 she remembered her uncle “Simmie” as a family man who “was like a father” to her, and enjoyed spending holidays with his loved ones. Lambert saw his family just hours before the attack, NBC 10 reported.

Lambert had walked the path near the Martin Luther King Recreation Center and YMCA for “60, 70 years of his life,” Stephens told Fox 29′s Shawnette Wilson. “And for his life to be snuffed out like that, it’s just unbelievable.”

“Where were the parents?” Stephens asked in the interview with Fox 29. “I realize people have to work and have to do what they have to do, but there should be some structure.”

To the teens accused of attacking her uncle, Stephens had a message: “Turn yourself in.”

“Because if it was you or your family member, you would want justice,” she told CBS 3. “And that’s all we want, is we want justice. Because he did not deserve that.”

The attack occurred 12 days before Mayor Jim Kenney signed a bill implementing an earlier curfew for Philadelphia teens for the rest of the summer.

» READ MORE: Philly teens now have a 10 p.m. curfew for the summer. Here’s how it works.

Under the new curfew, which took effect Thursday night, all kids age 17 and younger must be indoors and off the streets by 10 p.m.; those 13 and younger must be home by 9:30.