A Man in a Chucky Mask Terrorized Pedestrians in Philadelphia, but He Picked the Wrong Woman to Ask “Are You Ready To Die?”

The man in the Chucky mask approached as many as 16 people near Philadelphia’s City Hall around 5 a.m. on August 12, possibly recording the interactions on his phone. He got in front of one 40-year-old jogger and asked “Are you ready to die?” twice. She screamed, ran, fell, and needed medical treatment.

Person in a Chucky Halloween mask facing a woman in a fighting stance on a city street — An AI-generated illustration of a person in a Chucky mask confronting a woman who drops into a fighting stance.

Jameka Wilson, 25, was heading to an early exercise class when she spotted him closing in. She first waved and shouted across the intersection to warn the jogger. When the masked man turned on her, she chose not to run. She squared up, yelled “Don’t follow me,” kept her hands guarding her face, and watched him. “He opened up all of the lines of attack,” she said. So she kicked him in the chest, and he stumbled back and fled.

Person wearing a Chucky Halloween mask on a city street — An AI-generated illustration of a person in a Chucky mask.

Wilson is an actress and University of the Arts graduate whose stage-combat training taught her to read an opponent’s body language and protect her centerline.

Police later identified the suspect as Zymire Hughes, 22, and issued an arrest warrant for terroristic threats, harassment, simple assault, and reckless endangerment, among other counts. He was on probation for a prior offense, and investigators believe he may have fled the state. DA Larry Krasner called him a “punk.”