TWO SLAIN IN CHESTER
Latest slayings bring city’s toll to 17 for the year
16TH & 17TH VICTIMS FOUND SHOT TO DEATH INSIDE CITY HOME
Gun violence in the city claimed six lives in the month of June - three victims in the last week, two of whom were discovered in an apartment Friday afternoon.
City Mayor Thaddeus Kirkland was in his office Friday when he heard the call regarding a double shooting in the 2200 block of West Third Street.
“It makes no sense,” Kirkland said at the scene, shaking his head.
According to Police Chief James Nolan IV, city police responded about 1:52 p.m. to a ground-floor apartment on West Third Street for a report of a shooting. Responding officers found a male and a female unresponsive, both suffering apparent gunshot wounds. Paramedics from Crozer-Chester Medical Center and the Chester Fire Department responded and pronounced the victims dead at the scene.
Police have a tentative identification on the male, believed to be in his late 20s, Nolan said. The female was 16 years old.
According to Nolan, neither victim lived in the apartment.
“Someone came in and found them and called 911,” Nolan said, noting the discovery was made within a short time of the shootings.
A warrant to search the apartment was obtained and as of early evening Friday, detectives were still processing the scene, as well as interviewing potential witnesses, Nolan said.
“It’s sketchy,” Nolan said of any details. “It’s still very early in the investigation.”
Autopsies will be conducted to determine the exact cause and manner of death, though Nolan said the two deaths bring the city’s homicide toll to 17 this year.
City Detective Victor Heness and county Detective Michael Jay have been assigned to the latest case. Anyone with information is asked to call Heness at 610447-8429 or Jay at 610-8914711.
According to Nolan, investigators were making headway in the fatal shooting Tuesday, June 27, of 34-yearold Blane Jones when Friday’s incident occurred.
Jones was in the area of the 1000 block of McDowell Avenue when he and another male were shot, shortly before 7:45 p.m. The other victim survived.
“We are looking for multiple shooters in that case,” Nolan said.
It was just two days into the month when a 16-year-old Chester High School student, Zion Abdullah, was shot and killed as he was walking to school. The teen ran to 10th and Fulton streets where he collapsed and died in the parking lot of the Christopher Columbus School.
Five days later, on June 7, shots rang out again, this time in the 900 block of West Street. It was about 9:30 p.m. when police were called to the area and found Darnell Sadler, 24, lying in the doorway of a house suffering from multiple gunshot wounds. He was taken to Crozer, where he was pronounced dead about an hour later, according to authorities.
City resident William Corbin Jr., 28, was gunned down on the morning of June 15. Found lying in the 500 block of Tilghman Street, he was pronounced dead at the scene.
Anyone with any information regarding these or other unsolved homicides is asked to call city detectives as 610447-7909, county detectives at 610-891-4700 or 911.
Friday night, the mayor expressed sadness at the senseless loss of life, and reiterated the need for community cooperation.
“It’s definitely heart breaking. You would hope that folks would have enough care and decency for life that they would not try to play some kind of God by taking another’s life,” Kirkland said. “The only way we can combat this is with help from the community, and help from the family members. Without them, we are just going to keep going down this road.”
By family members, Kirkland said he means the family members of victims as well as family members who know of those who are committing the crimes.
Countywide, there have been 18 homicides in 2017.