Mother and juvenile son charged in Chester
CHESTER >> A city woman is charged with forcing a street brawl between her juvenile daughter and another girl, while the woman’s 17-year-old son is charged with making threats with a gun against his sister’s rival and three of her friends, police said.
Police Chief James Nolan said the Oct. 31 arrests of Tammy Harmon and her juvenile son were due to “violent behavior,” though nonetheless a “ridiculous” and “unnecessary” display that resulted in all four juvenile victims suffering minor injuries.
Harmon, 33, of the 1100 block of Booth Street, is charged with four counts each of terroristic threats, reckless endangerment, harassment, simple assault and conspiracy, as well as one count of endangering the welfare of a child, according to online court records.
Meanwhile, a juvenile petition has been filed against her son on firearms and related assault offenses, Nolan said.
According to Nolan, the mother and son were identified as suspects as a result of an investigation by city Officer Jennifer Jones.
According to the probable cause affidavit against Harmon, Jones interviewed four individuals regarding an alleged assault. The victims told the officer that sometime between
3:30 p.m. and 4 p.m. on Oct. 26, an unknown juvenile male reportedly jumped over a fence in the alleyway in the area of the 900 block of West Eighth Street, brandishing a firearm.
“Don’t move or I will shoot you, I swear on my dead homies,” the armed juvenile reportedly threatened the four girls.
The juvenile then reportedly asked the four girls, “Who jumped my sister?”
According to the affidavit, the four girls told the officer that they tried to show a video to the young gunman, proving that his sister was not jumped but had engaged in a fistfight with one of the girls in their group.
During this interaction, according to the affidavit, Harmon and her daughter arrived on the scene.
“Y’all lucky I don’t have my son shoot you, but instead I want my daughter to have her fair one,” Harmon told the four girls, according to the affidavit.
Harmon then allegedly ordered her daughter to fight one of the four girls, according to the affidavit.
When it seemed as if his sister was losing the fight, the 17-yearold defendant put his firearm in his pocket and started punching his sister’s rival in the face and body, according to the affidavit.
“Tammy Harmon at some point told all the females to run because she was unable to control her son … from hitting the victims,” the affidavit states.
According to the affidavit, three other girls were also punched, and at least one was stomped. One of the girls suffered a concussion and was treated at Crozer-Chester Medical Center and released.
As part of Jones’ investigation, a search warrant was executed at Harmon’s Booth Street residence, shortly after 6 a.m. on Oct. 31. A
.365-caliber firearm with six rounds in the chamber was recovered from the residence, Nolan said.
Harmon and her 17-year-old son were arrested and placed into custody. They were escorted separately to police headquarters.
“What the f—- you got my mom locked up for, that was my gun,” the
17-year-old reportedly blurted as he entered the lockup area, Nolan said.
Harmon was jailed overnight at the county prison. A bondsman Thursday posted her bail, which was set at 10 percent of $25,000, according to online court records.
Her preliminary hearing is listed for Dec. 5 before Magisterial District Judge Spencer B. Seaton Jr.