Philly police investigating alleged plot to attack Pennsylvania Convention Center

 
Philadelphia police are investigating an alleged plot to attack the Pennsylvania Convention Center where ballots are being counted.

Action News has learned Thursday night that police got a tip about a group driving up from Virginia in a Hummer to unleash an attack at the Convention Center.

Police said they found a weapon and two people were transferred to Central Detectives.

However, it's unclear how or if the people are connected to the investigation.

Early Friday morning, the Hummer was still on 13th Street near Vine.

The vehicle had a window sticker and a hat with the logo for the internet group QAnon, which is known for spreading conspiracy theories. The FBI has labeled them a domestic terror threat.

At least 24 congressional candidates in this current election have endorsed or given credit to conspiracy theories promoted by the group.

No injuries were reported. 

Inside the Convention Center, workers have been tallying hundreds of thousands of votes cast by Philadelphia residents.

In Philadelphia, 358,644 absentee and mail-in ballots have been returned so far. 84 percent of those have been counted, and 58,642 more need to be counted.

All eyes have been on battleground Pennsylvania as the race tightens between Joe Biden and Donald Trump in the race for the White House.

Some of the state's most heavily populated locales, including Montgomery and Chester counties in the Philadelphia suburbs, reported finishing their tallies. The Trump campaign tried to stop the count in Philadelphia itself - alleging city officials were depriving their observers of meaningful access - but a federal judge refused to go along, instead urging the sides to forge an agreement. Speaking from the White House, Trump made unsupported allegations that Democrats in Pennsylvania and elsewhere were trying to steal the election.



Despite a flurry of legal action by Trump and the Republican Party over aspects of the count, counties across Pennsylvania headed toward the finish line of a massive tabulating effort that included millions of mail-in ballots. Pennsylvania remained the largest electoral prize yet to be called.

The Trump campaign later filed an emergency action in federal court, asserting the city had failed to comply with the state court order. The campaign asked a federal judge to halt the count "so long as Republican observers are not present as required by state law."

The city insisted it had moved barricades as ordered, even as it appealed the state court ruling to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, citing concerns over worker safety amid the coronavirus pandemic and the potential for intimidation.

At an evening hearing, U.S. District Judge Paul S. Diamond, an appointee of former GOP President George W. Bush, told the Trump campaign and city officials to work it out. He expressed exasperation as lawyers bickered about which side was following the rules.