Mummer, Daughter Accused of Attacking Homeless Man
A hall-of-fame Mummer and his daughter have been accused of attacking a homeless man, generating international headlines.
Carmen “Butchie” D’Amato, 62, and his daughter, 36-year-old Rita D’Amato were arrested on Halloween night.
Carmen, a Hall-of-fame Mummer with the South Philly Vikings, approached an unidentified 36-year-old man at the corner of 2nd and Carpenter Streets accompanied by his daughter around 3 a.m. on last week, police said.
The father was allegedly carrying a gun and his daughter a baseball bat.
After a brief conversation, police said, Rita swung the bat at the man and hit him in his upper body. The man ran, and amid a foot chase Carmen allegedly fired several shots, one of which struck the man in the left leg.
The Daily Mail describes their alleged actions; the attack on the man was caught on the video above:
Shocking footage shows Rita apparently crouching into a batting stance, before striking the victim in the chest with a baseball bat, knocking him to the ground.
As he gets up and tries to run, Carmen, who was inducted into the Mummers Hall of Fame aged just 21 and served as captain of the South Philly Vikings, then seemingly fires two shots at his leg.
Carmen D’Amato is something of a legend among South Philadelphia Mummers brigades. At just 21, he was inducted into the Mummers Hall of Fame and served as captain of the South Philly Vikings for several years. He turned the beleaguered club into a powerhouse team that, in the late 1980s and early 1990s, boasted several first-place finishes in the Fancy Brigade Division, according to a 1990 article in the Philadelphia Daily News.
His term as Vikings captain was cut short when he was indicted in 1988 on charges of conspiracy to manufacture and distribute methamphetamine and defrauding the IRS. He was acquitted of the drug charge, but sentenced to four years in federal prison for tax fraud. Before his sentencing hearing, 44 people sent in letters of support.
6ABC suggests the D’Amatos were taking the law into their own hands:
Police sources say the victim had drugs in his system, initially claimed he didn’t know his attackers, and was not cooperating with detectives.
There were a rash of car break-ins in the area but police have not confirmed whether they are related to the attack.
“I’ll tell you the truth, if the guy was breaking into cars, he deserved to get hit with a baseball bat – I agree with that. But if it wasn’t him, God bless the D’Amatos,” said Stephen Foster.
According to court documents, both father and daughter have posted bail.
