Blowing Up Philly-Area ATMs Lands Delco Man Prison Time

YEADON, PA — A Delaware County man was sentenced to prison and ordered to pay more than $400,000 in restitution after he set off explosives at area ATMs, federal authorities said.

United States Attorney Jacqueline C. Romero said Cushmir McBride, 25, of Yeadon, was sentenced to 90 months’ imprisonment and three years of supervised release for setting off explosives near ATMs inside a Target, a Wells Fargo bank branch, and Wawa stores. He was also ordered to pay $417,463 in restitution and a $300 special assessment

McBride and two others were charged in connection with those crimes in an April 2021 indictment and a January 2022 superseding indictment.

In January, McBride pleaded guilty to conspiracy to maliciously damage property used in interstate commerce by means of an explosive, and aiding and abetting, as well as five separate counts of maliciously damaging property used in interstate commerce by means of an explosive.

Several of the crimes took place in the aftermath of the October 2020 deadly police shooting of Walter Waallace Jr. in West Philadelphia, authorities said.

Peaceful protests began the night of Oct. 26, 2020. Protested continued into the following days, then came a period of civil unrest that led to widespread incidents of looting and violence in various neighborhoods in Philadelphia.

On Oct. 28, 2020, McBride and Nasser McFall, 25, of Claymont, Delaware, and Kamar Thompson, 37, of Philadelphia, conspired to break into a Target in the Port Richmond section of Philadelphia and set off an explosive device in order to steal money from an ATM inside.

Then on Oct. 29, the three broke into a Wawa on Richmond Street in Philadelphia, where they again set off explosive devices in order to steal money from the ATM.

Two days later on Oct. 31, they broke into another Wawa in Northeast Philadelphia and detonated an explosive device.

And again on Nov. 4, authorities said they set off an explosive device in another Wawa in Claymont, Delaware, in an attempt to rob this store in the same manner.

About a month later on Dec. 2, the three set off an explosive device inside an ATM at a Wells Fargo bank in Philadelphia.

McBride was also charged with setting off an explosive device at a Wells Fargo ATM in Philadelphia on March 2, 2021.

In total, the three were able to steal about $417,000 during the course of the conspiracy.

Thompson pleaded guilty in November 2021 to conspiracy to maliciously damage property used in interstate commerce by means of an explosive, and aiding and abetting, six counts of maliciously damaging property used in interstate commerce by means of an explosive, and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.

McFall pleaded guilty to five counts against him in June 2022, and in January of this year was sentenced by the late U.S. District Judge Gene E.K. Pratter to 78 months’ imprisonment, three years of supervised release, and restitution in the amount of $256,083.