August 03, 2016
Brian Hickey/PhillyVoice
Shawn Nichol (middle, wearing white T-shirt and black shorts) intervened in a wild brawl at a Northeast Philadelphia Wawa location on Friday, July 29, 2016.
Shawn Nichol went to a Northeast Philadelphia Wawa to grab a sandwich on Friday night, and left with a “few scrapes” after he stepped into the middle of a raucous brawl that was captured on video (see below).
Since the fracas, we’ve learned that the scrap went down at the convenience store chain’s Torresdale Avenue and Levick Street location, and that Nichol wanted to get word out to hold his attackers accountable.
While a Philadelphia Police Department spokesman said Wednesday that no charges have been filed, Nichol shared Instagram photos showing his alleged attackers, and noted social media posts show that police allegedly have been seen at their home.
He explained that when he and a cousin arrived at the Wawa, he saw a group of people trying to “jump” an employee before starting to ransack the store. He went outside, called the police, re-entered the store and tried to break it up the fight.
That’s when he found himself losing his T-shirt as he was hit with a flurry of punches and shoves.
In a series of text messages with PhillyVoice starting Sunday night, Nichol said he’s gotten two types of reactions to what happened.
“People are messaging me to thank me, but others are threatening me,” wrote Nichol. “They’re already making threats. I leave for military service in less than a month, so I doubt they’ll catch me before then. I’d prefer to expose the trash.”
"I leave for military service in less than a month, so I doubt they’ll catch me before then. I’d prefer to expose the trash.” – Shawn Nichol
Nichol, who will be joining the ranks of the U.S. Navy, rued the fact that the video doesn’t capture the entire incident, and would “really like to get the security camera footage from Wawa so you could really see the lady’s beating the crap out of me.”
He doesn’t regret jumping into the fray because “it’s the right thing to do,” particularly when other bystanders didn’t intervene.
As for injuries, Nichol suffered “a few scrapes, that’s about it” and didn’t need to go to the emergency room afterwards.
The video can be viewed below (Disclaimer: Video contains plenty of explicit language):
