The shameless influencer arrested during this week’s Philadelphia riots is no longer grinning after a night in jail — while her family admits they’re “ashamed” of her antics.
“I regret it,” Dayjia Blackwell, the 21-year-old better known online as “Meatball,” told NBC Philadelphia on Thursday after being hit with felony charges for the looting she filmed and cheered on with excitement.
“I just prefer, you know, never loot again, stay out of trouble, never go to jail,” she said.
Blackwell spoke to the local outlet on the porch of her home while wearing a T-shirt and hat both saying: “Aint nuffin.”
If that was a nod to her legal woes, however, her family seemed to clearly disagree — with her mom pulling up outside and holding down her horn to stop the interview.
The influencer’s grandmother then minced no words when discussing her antics.
“What goes through my mind, as a grandmother, is I’m very ashamed. I’m very ashamed to see my [grandchild] there, at that time,” Vashti Fields told Fox 29.
“When I see someone of my blood, that has been there while this is happening … that hurts me deeply.”
But she also described her granddaughter as a “loving, kind, caring, business-minded go-getter, adding: “I want her to start a business and, most of all, I want her to be a positive influencer.”
“Meatball” was charged with causing/risking a catastrophe, criminal mischief, riot, aiding consummation, access to communication and disorderly conduct.
Fields said she doesn’t think her granddaughter is guilty of all that, but wants her to publicly apologize by writing a letter to the City of Brotherly Love and, hopefully, use her voice for good.
“Meatball” also took to Instagram to give her side of the story and plug her Cash App handle for her fans to send her money as a “welcome home” gift.
“All I want to do is go treat myself,” she told her fans on Instagram, saying she wants to go get her “toes done,” as well as address her legal woes.
The influencer said she wants the charges “expunged” from her record and insisted that she is “not a trouble person.”
“I’m a good person. I’m a businesswoman. I don’t like it. I didn’t know this s–t would go this far,” she said.
“I’ve never been through nothing like that in my life. I don’t even know what happened, like I need some sleep. I’m scared, I’m traumatized. Never again in my life, like seriously,” “Meatball” said on a video posted to her Instagram story.
Authorities have said that the looting was unrelated to earlier protests in Philadelphia over a judge dismissing charges in the police shooting of Eddie Irizarry, 27.