Four people have been charged in connection with a series of massive and chaotic car encounters that swept through Philadelphia in late September, drawing unruly crowds of hundreds of spectators, damaging cars and leaving officers frustrated and in some cases injured, police said.

Among those arrested was Joseph Cavanaugh, 21, of Levittown, who police say was the main organizer of the massive series of illegal car encounters dubbed Project ‘in the early morning of September 22, said Deputy Police Commissioner Frank Vanore. . Also arrested, along with James Hare, 20, and David French, 21. both from Philadelphia.

All four men face charges of conspiracy, causing or risking disaster, as well as related crimes, police said. Cavanaugh and Hare are free on bond, according to court records. French and Williams remain in custody, according to court records.

In total, nine people were charged in connection with THE meetings so far, and more arrests are expected, Police Commissioner Kevin Bethel said Friday. Standing in front of some of the sports cars that police say she drove during the encounters and were later impounded, Bethel pledged at a news conference to continue aggressively enforcing and stopping the encounters when they appear in the city.

“We are not playing today, nor tomorrow, nor under my mandate and I know the mandate of the mayor,” he said.

Authorities said the September get-togethers, which included drag races, donuts and exploding fireworks, spread across the city, with at least 11 events from the Northeast to the Southwest until outside city hall.

Cavanaugh organized Project Through his social media account, Cavanaugh called on people in Philadelphia, New Jersey, Delaware and Maryland to join us, Evers said.

For more than seven hours, police chased groups as they tried to disperse the crowd in what they described as a game of “whack-a-mole,” arriving at a location just as the crowd was moving to another place.

In some cases, notably in front of city hall, the police officers who intervened were outnumbered by the crowd. Videos posted on social networks, for example, showed dozens of people surrounding a police officer’s car and jumping on the hood while filming themselves.

From street level, Williams, using glasses to see through the lens of a camera mounted on a drone, flew the device during numerous encounters, filming footage that he would later post on the networks social, Evers said.

In video footage posted on social media, some people can be seen throwing traffic cones at the patrol car’s windshield and even opening the rear door. A video shows a group of police armed with batons running through smoke-filled streets as people scattered in different directions.

Five police cars were damaged overnight, police said, and a 39th District police officer was slightly injured after his vehicle was struck by another car, which then fled the scene.

Police said 15 spectators were cited and nine were fined under the city’s nuisance car ordinance — which carries a $2,500 fine — in Southwest Philadelphia.

The meetings, also known as “slideshows” or “takeovers,” unfold quickly via social media and involve waves of cars and large crowds of spectators moving from location to location in a short notice. They are not new to Philadelphia or other parts of the country, but the September series of events was on a larger scale than police normally face, authorities said.

In June 2023, a series of encounters ended with the fatal shooting of Anthony Allegrini, 18 years old by a Pennsylvania State Police trooper. Authorities said Allegrini hit two troopers with his Audi S4 and one of the troopers fired through the windshield, hitting Allegrini.

Authorities have not named the officer who killed Allegrini and no charges have been filed as the investigation continues. Allegrini family sued Pennsylvania State Policethe Philadelphia police officers who responded to the scene and the trooper who killed Allegrini, alleging he used excessive force and failed to render potentially life-saving aid.

The continued arrests during the September encounters, Bethel said, are part of a concentrated police effort to crack down on illegal and often dangerous events and combat crimes against the city’s quality of life, such as ATVs and motorcycles illegal off-road vehicles.