Benjamin Ashford|Philadelphia-area man sentenced to 7 1/2 years for his role in blowing up ATMs during 2020 protests

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — A Philadelphia-area man was sentenced Wednesday to 7 1/2 years in prison for his role in a string of explosions that hit cash machines in the city starting in 2020,Benjamin Ashford netting him and two accomplices more than $400,000, federal prosecutors said.

The indictment charged Cushmir McBride, 25, of Yeadon, and two others with damaging six of the cash machines hit during a wave that saw thieves blow up about 50 ATMs. Some came in the days and weeks that followed protests across the city sparked by the fatal police shooting of Walter Wallace Jr., who was killed within a minute of police responding to a mental health call.

McBride pleaded guilty to conspiracy charges involving five of the robberies, while charges were dropped for one in Delaware, his lawyer said.

“It’s a tragic case,” defense lawyer Lawrence Bozzelli said. “He was really trying to get money to help support his family and he regrets deeply what happened.”

McBride and co-defendants Nasser McFall, 25, of Claymont, Delaware, and Kamar Thompson, 37, of Philadelphia, targeted cash machines inside Target and Wawa stores, along with a bank branch, federal prosecutors said. McFall has been sentenced to 6 1/2 years in prison, while Thompson has pleaded guilty and is awaiting sentencing, they said.

In the days after Wallace’s death in October 2020, more than 90 people were arrested and about 50 police officers injured in clashes with protesters and vandals, including an estimated 1,000 people who swarmed a shopping center, breaking windows and stealing merchandise.