It was 5:30 in the morning in Philadelphia. A 40-year-old woman went out for a run like any other Wednesday, near City Hall, along John F. Kennedy Boulevard.
That’s when he appeared. Wearing a mask identical to Chucky’s, the killer doll from the movies, he held his phone in front of his face and asked her, over and over, if she was ready to die.
She ran to save herself and injured one leg while fleeing, a wound that ultimately required extensive medical attention. Transit officers chased him into a train station, but he escaped.
It took police weeks to put a name to the face behind the mask: Zymire Hughes, 22, who was already on probation for another crime in Pennsylvania.
Investigators believe it was all to get viral content — they found accounts belonging to him on TikTok and Instagram. District Attorney Larry Krasner did not hesitate to publicly call him a coward.
Today, Hughes remains a fugitive, with an active arrest warrant and possible leads in California and Nevada.