Philly gas station owner hires security guards armed with AR-15s

The owner of a Philadelphia gas station has hired a security team armed with AR-15s, shotguns, and decked out in Kevlar vests as he fights to combat the city’s ongoing crime crisis.

Neil Patel (pictured), who oversees a Karco gas station in North Philadelphia, said he hired state S.I.T.E. agents to protect his employees and customers after several recent incidents during which his store was ransacked.

Patel told a local Fox outlet that criminals are ‘forcing us to hire the security, high-level security, state-level. We are tired of this nonsense; robbery, drug trafficking, hanging around, gangs,’ he added.

The small business owner said he was recently pushed to hire the security team after a group of young people vandalized his business and stole his ATM. He said his car had also been damaged by area criminals.

Patel shared pictures and footage of a ransacked store, hooded criminals dragging the ATM machine out of the store, and his car with slashed tires and a smashed window. Most local residents and neighbors of Patel and his station said they supported Patel’s decision to staff up with visibly armed security.

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Local resident Korrie Barry said she ‘supports the owner’ and his decision to bring on the security team, adding that she is sympathetic to individuals who ‘live in a bad area’ and are just trying to ‘get gas’ without confronting criminal danger.

One resident said he opposed Patel’s decision, saying he didn’t like the idea of children encountering large guards who are armed to the teeth. Patel said he understands the concern, but that the response is motivated by criminals who are also armed.

‘I listen to them, but…violent people, they carry the guns,’ he said. ‘I fear for the safety of my employees’ as well as his customers. Pennsylvania S.I.T.E. State Agents can be hired as private armed security for events and businesses.

S.I.T.E Chief Andre Boyer (pictured) said his team wears Kevlar and ‘are trained.’ ‘My guards go to training every other week, they’re proficient with [guns] and with their taser, they know the law,’ he said. ‘We have a right to protect this property by any means necessary, and whatever force necessary to be used to protect it,’ he added about Patel’s business. Despite what may have, in a previous time, seemed like a drastic measure, Patel says his business has not had any run-ins with lawbreakers since he beefed up his security presence.

Violent crime as a whole is up about three percent year-to-date in Philadelphia overall crime has surged 23 percent since this time last year. Robberies have skyrocketed 36.7 percent during the last year as the city’s liberal leadership contends with how to confront the crime crisis.

Earlier this year, Philadelphia police appealed to the city’s mayor Jim Kenney (pictured) that they ‘can’t keep up’ with the rapidly rising homicide rate, and the mayor on Monday signed an order that will ban citizens from carrying guns in public places like parks and schools. The crisis of lawlessness in Philadelphia has become so dire that the city’s District Attorney, progressive Larry Krasner, is currently facing an impeachment trial. Earlier this month, state legislators voted to impeach Krasner over progressive policies that have contributed to the vast rise in crime in Philadelphia. In a near party-line vote, state assembly members voted 107-85 to move ahead with what would be the state’s first impeachment trial in 30 years. State Republicans, whose majority shrank by one seat this year, will need the support of at least some state Senate Democrats in order to attain the two-thirds majority vote necessary to remove Krasner.

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