Philadelphia Police Find Online List of Witnesses

The “rats215” account on the photo-sharing website Instagram has posted pictures, police statements and testimony identifying more than 30 witnesses since February.

Lt. John Walker of the Philadelphia Police Department said investigators learned of the account this month when an officer monitoring Twitter spotted photographs of a witness and court records about an attempted shooting last year. That led to the Instagram account, where officials found witness statements from a 19-year-old victim who said he was shot at because he had testified in a homicide case. The Philadelphia Inquirer first reported news of the Instagram account.

It remains unclear how rats215 obtained the victim’s testimony. The case was handled by a secret grand jury — a practice the Pennsylvania Supreme Court authorized last year to protect witnesses in violent crime cases.

The site also gave names of witnesses, even though the names of witnesses and victims are redacted in court records for their protection.

The account, which was inaccessible by Thursday night, had nearly 7,900 followers and had been updated almost daily, The Inquirer reported. It contained more than 150 photographs, many drawing dozens of comments and likes.

“Post some new rats,” a commenter wrote in September. “I needa put a hit out on them.”

One post praised a convicted drug dealer, Kaboni Savage, who was sentenced to death for being involved in a dozen murders, including a firebombing that killed four children and two women. The bombing was retaliation for an informant’s cooperation with the authorities and was among the worst witness revenge killings in city history.