A 40-year old is in custody in Philadelphia after killing five and injuring at least four more people when he seemingly indiscriminately opened fire at cars and pedestrians with an AR-15-style rifle on a bustling summer evening Monday.
By the time police arrested the suspect there were nine victims, five of whom died.
“What happened last night in our Kingsessing neighborhood was unimaginably disgusting and horrifying,” said Philadelphia Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw at a Tuesday afternoon press conference.
“On what was supposed to be a beautiful summer evening, this armed and armored individual wreaked havoc, firing with a rifle at their victims, seemingly at random. Shooting seven, killing five, including children, babies.”
Philadelphia had already racked up 212 homicides for 2023 as of Sunday, which is a 19% decrease from the previous year, according to the city’s Comptroller Office. At that time 185 of those homicides were from shootings, and an additional 744 people suffered non-fatal gunshot wounds in what the Comptroller’s office has labeled a “gun violence crisis.”
Before 9 p.m. Monday, four more men would be pronounced dead at Penn Presbyterian Medical Center, according to Philadelphia Police as a result of the rampage: Lashyd Merritt, 20, who was shot multiple times in the chest and arm; Dymir Stanton, 29, shot in the chest and back; Ralph Moralis, 59, shot in the head, side and buttocks; and teenager Daujan Brown, 15, who was shot in the shoulder, chest and back.
Four others were injured in the violence: two 2-year-old boys, as well as a 13-year-old boy and a 33-year-old woman.
Within the first hour of the Fourth of July, another man Joseph Wamah, Jr., 31, was pronounced dead by Philadelphia Fire Department medics who responded to the home after his family members had found him there — hours after the chaotic street scene — shot multiple times.
It was this last man who police believe was the first victim of the shooting spree by the 40-year-old suspect, who was arrested, “without incident,” after a foot pursuit in an alley behind the 1600-block of Frazier Street. Commissioner Outlaw said her department is “confident that we have the individual responsible in custody.”
She added that investigators believe he acted alone and had no connection to the victims.
Police from Philadelphia’s 12th District responded to a radio call reporting a shooting in progress in the area of the 1600-block of South 56th Street, according to PPD Staff Inspector Ernest Ransom, the homicide unit commander.
He said the suspect was wearing a ski mask, a bulletproof vest with multiple magazines for the rifle attached, and carrying a police scanner. The suspect, who was not identified Tuesday, was spotted along the street from Chester Avenue to Springfield Avenue by multiple 911 callers.
“The suspect then began shooting aimlessly at occupied vehicles and individuals on the street as they walked,” Ransom said, adding that one of his targets was a car driven by a mother driving her 2-year-old twin boys home. One of the boys was shot multiple times in the leg. The other boy and their mother would suffer injury to their eyes from the shattered glass.
Outlaw spoke Monday night from the scene of the crime, as the investigation was still clearly in its initial stages, with officers behind her canvassing the area for witnesses, the location of police or residential cameras and collecting evidence. In all, she said at the time, 50 shell casings had been recovered from the roughly 2-by-4-block area where the shootings took place.
She said a 9 mm pistol was also recovered from the unnamed suspect.
Another man was also arrested, who Outlaw said at the first press conference she believed “returned fire in the direction of the shooter,” though no further information on his role or possible charges has been released.
“Everyone you see here today — and not here — in this room is committed to finding answers to what happened here last night and seeking justice for the victims and their families,” Outlaw said in the Tuesday afternoon press conference.
“Our investigators are working tirelessly to gather and analyze all available evidence, ensuring a thorough and comprehensive investigation. It is crucial that we allow them the time and resources necessary to uncover the truth, which includes the why.”
Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney, who last summer signed an executive order banning guns and other weapons at the city’s parks and recreation facilities, said that the horrific scene was “a disgraceful but all-to-common situation in America” and made a call for further gun regulations.
“This country needs to reexamine its conscience and figure out how to get guns out of dangerous people’s hands,” he said Tuesday.
“I was today at Independence Hall where they wrote that Constitution, and the second amendment was never intended to protect this,” he said later. “This was a terrible, tragic situation that has traumatized the community. We are begging Congress to protect lives and do something about America’s gun problem.”
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