2 CHARGED IN SLAYING
22-YEAR-OLD CHESTER MAN WAS GUNNED DOWN ON STREET
Nearly five months to the day after the shooting death of 22-year-old Donte Carlton Murray in Chester, authorities Thursday announced the arrests of two 19-year-old city men on murder and related assault and firearms offenses.
Witness information, video and ballistics all combined to mount a first-degree murder case against suspects Breon Matthew Pringle, of the 2600 block of Swarts Street, and Yordanie Radamas Camacho, of the 2600 block of Price Street, Delaware County District Attorney Jack Whelan, Chester Police Commissioner Otis Blair and Chester Police Chief James Nolan IV stated in a release issued by the D.A.’s office.
Pringle and Camacho are additionally charged with third-degree murder, criminal homicide, possession of a weapon, person not to possess a firearm and firearms not to be carried without a license. Their arrests capped an investigation led by city Detective David DeFrank and county Detective Vincent Ficchi.
Both suspects are behind bars at the county prison. Pringle was taken into custody on Sunday, July 2. Camacho was already being held on a detainer on an unrelated firearms offense. They are expected to be preliminarily arraigned by video on Friday, July 6, according to a released issued by county spokeswoman Emily Harris.
“Detectives in both the Chester Police Department and Criminal Investigation Division worked tirelessly on this investigation to bring the actors in this case before the court. We hope the prosecution will bring some closure to the family of Donte Murray,” Nolan said.
“They’ve been charged but they haven’t been convicted yet,” Donte’s grieving mother, Kenecha Murray of Upper Darby, said Thursday night. “I mean, it’s a relief to know they are off the streets and won’t be able to kill anyone else … but it doesn’t change anything for me, his siblings, his children.
“My firstborn son in gone,” the mother of seven continued. “I will never get to hear him say, ‘I love you.’”
In September 2016, Pringle was charged with attempted murder and related offenses in an unrelated shooting that occurred in the city earlier that same month. According to online court records, all charges against Pringle in that case were dismissed.
It was at 2:53 p.m. on Feb. 3, 2017, that Chester police officers Mike Maher and Todd Rose responded to the 900 Block of Pennell Street in Chester for a subject who was shot. The victim was identified as Murray, a city resident, and was transported by ambulance to Crozer-Chester Medical Center where he was pronounced dead.
At the crime scene, Chester Officer Jeffrey Linowski recovered projectiles, along with seven .45caliber fired cartridge casings and five 9 mm fired cartridge casings, all turned over as ballistics evidence for examination by CID Detective Louis Grandizio.
Meanwhile, investigators canvassed the neighborhood for information. Investigators were told that a gray, two-door vehicle, possibly a Honda Accord, sped from the area at the time of the shooting.
Five days later, on Feb. 8, city officers Timothy Garron, Matthew P. Goldschmidt and Jose Alvarez located a vehicle in the 2600 block of Price Street, which matched the description of the wanted vehicle. Pringle and Camacho were both in the car.
At the scene, police arrested Camacho on firearms violations as a result of him being in possession of a 9 mm Ruger Model P95 with an obliterated serial number. The Ruger had an extended magazine that was loaded with 29 rounds with one in the chamber. Also in the vehicle, police located a black 9 mm Beretta M9A1 in the rear seat cushion – where Pringle had been sitting.
When officers found the gun, Pringle fled the scene on foot and a warrant for his arrest for a firearm not to be carried without a license offense was filed.
As the result of an examination of the cartridge casings found at the scene of the homicide on Feb. 3, and the 9 mm Ruger recovered from Camacho on Feb. 8, Grandizio determined that the five 9 mm casings found at the homicide scene were fired from Camacho’s 9 mm Ruger, according to charges.
Kanecha Murray, 43, didn’t know either of the accused men, but she said she knows Pringle’s mother. Murray said Pringle’s mother will get the chance to see her son, even if it is in a jail. No punishments doled out to the suspects by the court could ever compare to the devastation she and her six surviving children have and will continue to experience.
“It doesn’t matter how many children I have, a piece of me is gone and it is gone forever,” she said.
Murray last saw Donte a few days before his death, but they communicated by text about a half-hour before the shooting.
She said Donte had gone to his sister’s house, and his plan was to cell phone bill and buy a water-ice treat for his niece.
‘He never it made it back to my daughter’s house,” Murray said. “My son had the biggest heart ever, why they would kill him, leave him in the street like that, I have no idea … My son didn’t do anything but love his family, be with his children. My son had two children. They killed my son one day before his son turned 1 year old.”
Murray believes her son was killed because of the people he chose to befriend, nothing sinister.
“If one person doesn’t like you … it’s not over money, or territory. It’s who you hang with,” she said.
“You can be at the wrong place at the wrong time.”
For Murray, it’s become very difficult to even be in Chester.
“All I can do is try to keep the memories of my son alive and in my heart forever,” she said.
“They’ve been charged but they haven’t been convicted yet. I mean, it’s a relief to know they are off the streets and won’t be able to kill anyone else … but it doesn’t change anything for me, his siblings, his children.
— Donte Murray’s grieving mother, Kenecha Murray of Upper Darby
Whelan commended DeFrank and Ficchi for their work in apprehending the murder suspects.
“We will continue to aggressively pursue violent criminal and work with our partners in law enforcement
and the Chester Police to arrest and prosecute individuals who engage in gun violence and have a senseless disregard for the safety of our children and neighbors,” the district attorney said.
Murray’s is one of 18 homicides in the Chester this year, all but one due to gun violence.
His funeral was at St. Luke Community Christian Church in Chester.
Bishop Dickie L. Robbins of Life in Christ Ministries was asked by a friend of Murray’s family to celebrate his “home-going” service.
Robbins recalled Thursday that the church that day was full and the crowd was mixed in age.
“But there was a large group of young people,” he said.
In eulogizing Donte, Robbins said part of his message to the
all the mourners was this:
“I shared that the culture we are living in is not conducive to a long life for a lot of young people. I talked about the culture of ‘I didn’t see anything’ or ‘I didn’t hear anything’ and how it makes it easy for guilty parties to get away with their crimes. I talked about how it was important for the community to rise up and say,
‘I’ve had enough,’ or this violence will continue.”
Robbins, who has ministering in Chester for 32 years, said he’s eulogized “way too many” victims like Donte Murray.
“Our young people need to learn better ways to resolve their differences, rather than resorting to gun violence, and ultimately death,” he said.
cycle
of