One of the five slain victims of the Philadelphia mass shooter was killed by the suspect nearly two days before the shooting occurred, investigators said Sunday.
“During the ongoing investigation, it was determined through information received through a source and corroborated by the Philadelphia Office of the Medical Examiner and additional evidence, that homicide victim Joseph Wamah, Jr. was killed by suspect Kimbrady Carriker approximately 44 hours prior to the mass shooting that occurred on March 7, 2023 at 8:28 p.m.,” a Philadelphia police spokesperson wrote Sunday.
Police said they received a first 911 call around 2 a.m. on the morning of July 2 reporting gunshots in the area of 1600 South 56th Street. Investigators believe 31-year-old Wamah Jr. was killed about 90 minutes later. The 911 call was routed to the 1600 block of North 56th Street, where responding officers searched the block but tested negative for the reported gunshots.
“Because this call was entered as 1600 North 56th Street, Philadelphia Police Radio was unable to immediately identify any calls for reports of gunshots in the area of 1600 South 56th Street,” the Philadelphia Police spokesperson wrote. .
Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner also issued a statement Sunday about the new details of the investigation.
“The grieving family of the deceased has been made aware of this new information, and I cannot express enough the pain I feel, and surely all officers and detectives working on this investigation must feel, that these developments can be confusing and repetitive – traumatic for Mr. Wamah’s loved ones,” Krasner wrote. “This new information, however, has not changed the number or type of charges we have filed against defendant Carriker: the Commonwealth alleges that he is responsible for the death of Mr. Wamah on July 2, 2023. This New information will lead the Commonwealth to amend or modify the term alleged in the complaint against Carriker for the murder of Mr. Wamah from July 3, 2023 to July 2, 2023.”
Kimbrady Carriker, 40, was arraigned Wednesday morning on five counts of murder, attempted murder, aggravated assault and counts of possession of weapons without a license and carrying firearms in public, prosecutors said. Carriker is accused of killing Wamah, who was later found dead inside a house, and then shot four others before turning himself in to police.
A 2-year-old boy and a 13-year-old boy were also wounded by gunshots and another 2-year-old boy and a woman were struck by broken glass in the riot that turned the working-class area of southwest Philadelphia into the site of the worst violence in the nation around the 4th of July holiday.
Joanne Pescatore, a supervisor with the Homicide and Non-Fatal Shooting Unit for the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office, said at least one of the seven roommates who lived with Carriker told investigators he was wearing a vest. bulletproof in the days before the shooting and that he had the weapons that he later used in filming in the house. Pescatore said the roommate described him as becoming more agitated in recent days.
“His way of dealing with it was to just avoid contact with him … as he became more and more agitated,” he said at a news conference Wednesday, a few blocks from where the shooting occurred.
Four people died and 2 children were injured, according to the police. This is a sprawling scene that occupies more than four blocks away. The authorities do not know if there was a party for the reason of Independence Day.
District Attorney Larry Krasner declined to comment on the suspect’s mental health when asked if it might have played a role in the killings, but said he hoped the defense would request an evaluation.
A representative for the Philadelphia Advocacy Association said he believed the office would represent Carriker, but declined to comment further.
Prosecutors said they recovered a handgun, a will dated June 23 and other evidence during a search of Carriker’s home. They declined to discuss the details of the will or whether it indicated that Carriker had been planning the attack.
Police initially detained another person who had shot Carriker Monday night, but prosecutors said Wednesday that person legally possessed a firearm and shot the suspect in the mass shooting after his brother was shot. . He was released without charge.
Court records show Carriker pleaded guilty in January 2005 to a misdemeanor charge of carrying a firearm without a license and was sentenced to three years probation.
At a separate news conference Wednesday afternoon to announce a lawsuit filed by the city of Philadelphia against several makers of self-made gun kits and gun parts, officials said both guns found on Carriker after he was taken into custody They appeared to be of their own making. – commonly called ghost guns.
Philadelphia Police Deputy Commissioner Frank Vanore said the AR-15 used in the shooting and a 9mm pistol Carriker was carrying but not used during the spree were ghost pistols.
Isabel Sánchez reports from Philadelphia on the pending charges against the gunman in the mass shooting that occurred in the Kinsessing neighborhood on the night of July 3, 2023.
“So if he had dropped that weapon and got away, we would have had no way of tracking that weapon back to him,” Vanore said.
The press conference and lawsuit were announced before Monday’s shooting. Mayor Jim Kenney said Wednesday that the city has seen a nearly 300% increase in ghost guns recovered during police investigations over the past four years, including 575 recovered in 2022.
Police called the Kingsessing neighborhood Monday night and found gunshot victims and began helping them before hearing more gunshots. Some officers took the victims to hospitals while others ran towards the shots.
Personnel Inspector Ernest Ransom, commander of the homicide unit, said witness interviews and video indicated the suspect went to various locations wearing a ski mask and bulletproof vest, carrying an AR-15-style rifle and shooting at people and random busy cars. Carriker’s gender identity was initially unclear due to photos he posted on social media of himself wearing what appeared to be a woman’s outfit.
“The suspect then began aimlessly shooting at the occupied vehicles and people on the street as they were walking by,” he said. The vehicles included a mother driving her 2-year-old twins home, one of whom was shot four times in the legs and the other was struck in the eye by broken glass.
Cornered in an alleyway, Carriker surrendered and was found to have two handguns, extra magazines, a police scanner and a bulletproof vest, police said.
Aside from Wamah Jr., who was found dead in a home early Tuesday, Philadelphia police identified the victims as Lashyd Merritt, 20; Dymire Stanton, 29; Ralph Morales, 59; and DaJuan Brown, 15, all pronounced dead shortly after the Monday night shooting.
Two people are in the custody of the police, who have managed to recover three weapons.
Asa Khalif, a member of the LGBTQ+ Advisory Committee for the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office, said Wednesday that there have since been hateful comments directed at transgender people because of the photos Carriker posted online.
“The suspect has not identified as trans. They have only identified themselves as male,” Khalif said. “But the language spewed out by the conservative press is violent and dangerous and is directed at transgender women of color. It is encouraging the community to be violent.”
Krasner said the streets around where the shootings occurred were quiet Wednesday. He said he saw a child’s bicycle on the ground untouched from the shootings.
Zaffer Qasim, an emergency physician at Penn Presbyterian Medical Center, where many of the victims were taken Monday night for treatment, declined to comment on the individual victims or their treatment, but noted the “extent of injury such as of the weapon that was used…and the amount of damage.”
“I said before we started that the bullets don’t care who you are. And it’s not just the victims, but it spreads to families in family rooms and to the community,” he said. “As the prosecutor pointed out, the streets are now empty because people are afraid to go out.”
GUN VIOLENCE IN PHILADELPHIA
As of Sunday, Philadelphia had reported 219 homicides so far in 2023, according to police data. That’s 22% less than the same period a year earlier, which was one of the deadliest on record in Philadelphia.
Children have made up about 11% of the 953 shooting victims so far this year in Philadelphia, according to data released by the City Comptroller’s Officewhich was last updated on Thursday.
