Police officials stated at a news conference on Monday that the gunman who killed four people in a mass shooting in Philadelphia last week went to the door of his first victim wearing a dark mask, fired through it, and entered the residence.
The information came out a day after police said they believed 31-year-old Joseph Wamah Jr. had been slain on July 2 rather than July 3, when the main attack occurred. In addition, authorities disclosed that a 911 call reporting the gunfire had been misdirected to the incorrect area.
The circumstances surrounding Wamah’s death and the initial response to the gunshot have been the subject of an investigation. An unnamed witness claims she saw mass shooter Kimbrady Carriker, 40, enter 1625 South 56th Street and shoot and kill Joseph Wamah Jr. from her porch.
About 44 hours later, investigators say, Carriker opened fire on the same neighborhood with an AR-15-style rifle, killing four people and wounded four more. “It was like something out of a movie. I couldn’t believe it,” said the eyewitness.
The tweet below verifies the news:
The dispatch error has people in this heartbroken neighborhood wondering if the mass shooting the following day could’ve been prevented. https://t.co/7cGKC7jgLk
— Action News on 6abc (@6abc) July 11, 2023
She claims she continuously dialed 911 in the hour and a half following the purported murder. “I waited, but the cops didn’t come. I started feeling guilty. So I did call the cops. But the first two times I didn’t get no answer, and the third time they called me back to ask me the location,” recalled the woman.
Officers were sent three miles north to the 1600 block of North 56th Street instead of the more appropriate South 56th Street. The cops that arrived on the scene saw nothing and then left.nThere was no discussion of north or south when they were talking. Deputy Commissioner Krista Dahl-Campbell, who is in charge of police dispatch, simply stated, “It was on the 1600 block.”
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- Initial Victim Shot in Philadelphia 44 Hours Before Larger Attack, Police Say
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However, the precise location of the 911 calls shows that the police had access to correct information. “There was a mistake.’ During a press conference on Monday afternoon, Deputy Commissioner Frank Vanore remarked, “Someone placed in the wrong location without looking at the very small print that she was at S. 56th.”
Residents of this devastated area are questioning, in light of the dispatch mix-up, whether or not the tragic shooting that took place the next day could have been avoided. Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw said, “While it may have given us an investigative lead, the likelihood of cutting off what happened later… we just don’t know.”
Meanwhile, Outlaw said the department has implemented another safeguard to try to avoid calls from being incorrectly tagged as baseless while the dispatch response is investigated. She said that a more senior manager’s approval would be required to end a call. According to Dahl-Campbell, when a 911 call is received, the system can pinpoint the caller’s position.
Although dispatchers have the option of having the operator’s location immediately transferred to them, this is not the case here. “Oftentimes you are not calling about yourself … so they end up inputting the reported information instead,” she said. According to Vanore, the police have yet to determine a motive in any shooting.
Carriker faces five counts of murder, two counts of attempted murder, two counts of aggravated assault, and two counts of unlawful possession of a weapon. According to their research, it seems like the same weapon was used in both attacks. He had previously claimed that both the AR-15-style weapon and the handgun discovered on Carriker after the shootings were homemade ghost guns.
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Vanore added that he wouldn’t have been able to identify Carriker from the surveillance video acquired after the shooting in Wamah if he hadn’t known who he was since Carriker’s arrest. Carriker was wearing dark clothing and a mask over his face.
According to eyewitness accounts and surveillance footage, the guy carried the AR-15-style gun to many areas where he opened fire on pedestrians and passing vehicles. Police added that when Carriker was cornered in an alley, he surrendered while wearing a bulletproof vest and in possession of two firearms and additional ammunition.
The attack on July 3 claimed the lives of 21-year-old Lashyd Merritt, 29-year-old Dymire Stanton, 59-year-old Ralph Moralis, and 15-year-old DaJuan Brown. Two more children, ages 2 and 13, were shot, while two others, ages 2 and 13, were injured by shattered glass, authorities said.
Fighting Against the Violence
On Monday night, residents spoke out against the recent violence at a community meeting. “We have to get up. We have to get involved. We have to stand up about all of this,” said Jamal Johnson of Kingsessing.
Members of the anti-violence organization Mothers in Charge were also there. “We can’t do this by ourselves. Everybody has got to come together with this. Like they said, it takes a village to raise a child, (it) takes a village to stop this violence,” said Sharleen Onugha with Mothers In Charge.
The articles and news coverage on CaliforniaExaminer.net are both informative and thought-provoking.