Mory Kante

Introduction

Mory Kante, a 21-year-old French national who was in the United States illegally and residing in Wilmington, Delaware, was sentenced on 16 October 2026 to 13 years in prison and five years of supervised release by U.S. District Judge Gerald J. Pappert for the gunpoint robbery and carjacking of two women in a single Philadelphia night. Kante was arrested on a criminal complaint and warrant in January 2026, indicted the same month, and pleaded guilty in June to carjacking, attempted carjacking, and using, carrying, and brandishing a firearm during and in relation to a crime of violence.

Background Information

The crimes occurred on 20 November 2025. At approximately 9:15 p.m., a woman parked her 2018 Honda Civic on the 1300 block of North Lawrence Street and walked away, then saw Kante run across the street and point a gun at her while saying “gimme your car keys” repeatedly. She dropped her purse; Kante scooped it up and ran, and police later found the purse on the street with some of its contents dumped out. Her camera, driver’s license, two credit cards, debit card, wallet, and some cash were missing.

The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation

Convicted and sentenced. Kante pleaded guilty to carjacking, attempted carjacking, and firearm brandishing for the armed robbery of one woman and the armed taking of another woman’s car, and received a 13-year federal sentence.

About two hours after the first attack, at roughly 11 p.m., police responded to an armed carjacking on the 700 block of West Girard Avenue, about seven blocks away, where a second woman reported being carjacked at gunpoint by a man in all black clothing and a gray hat. Location data from her phone placed her 2019 Kia Optima near Marvin Street and Wyoming Avenue, roughly four and a half miles north of the carjacking scene. When officers located the car and activated their lights and sirens, Kante fled in the vehicle, led police on a brief chase, abandoned it, tossed away a gun, jumped onto the porch of a nearby residence, and pushed his way into the home; a SWAT team was called and found him hiding in bushes in the backyard.

Public Reaction and Consequences

The 13-year sentence was announced by U.S. Attorney David Metcalf’s office, which has prosecuted a series of armed carjacking cases in Philadelphia with an emphasis on offenders who are in the country illegally — a framing the release itself adopted in its title. The case was investigated by the Philadelphia Police Department and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Justin Oshana.

Current Status

Kante, 21, is beginning a 156-month federal prison term followed by five years of supervised release, his guilty plea having resolved the carjacking, attempted carjacking, and firearm-brandishing counts from the November 2025 attacks. As a French national who was unlawfully present in the United States, he also faces immigration consequences beyond the criminal sentence.

Impact on Their Career/Life

Kante will spend what would have been his early twenties through his early thirties in federal prison for a single night in which he robbed one woman at gunpoint and stole another’s car, then fled from police, threw away a firearm, and broke into a stranger’s home before a SWAT team found him in the bushes. Both women were left robbed of property — one her purse and its contents, the other her car — and the pursuit that ended in the backyard became the final act of the crime spree his plea formally admitted.

Sources

• U.S. Attorney’s Office, Eastern District of Pennsylvania, “Illegal Alien Sentenced to 13 Years in Prison for 2025 Armed Carjacking, Attempted Carjacking in Philadelphia” — source