Philadelphia man sentenced to over 100 years in connection to 4 murders and prison escape
One of the men who was captured during a 10-day manhunt after being reported missing from a Philadelphia prison in May 2023 was sentenced on Thursday, Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner and the District Attorney's Office Juvenile Court Unit announced.
Ameen Hurst, 20, was sentenced to 55 to 110 years in prison in connection to four murders he committed as a teen and for escaping the Philadelphia Industrial Correctional Center.
Officials said Hurst entered a non-negotiated guilty plea on Nov. 1 to third-degree murder, attempted murder, escape, conspiracy to escape and other firearm and related offenses. The DA also confirmed he was a member of Young Bag Chasers [YBC].
Hurst and another defendant awaiting trial in May 2023 sparked a citywide manhunt after escaping the Philadelphia Industrial Correctional Center. The defendant was identified as Nasir Grant and was taken into custody after being on the run for about four days.
While authorities were looking for Hurst, he went to New York, rented a recording studio with his brother, and recorded music before returning to Philadelphia. Hurst was taken into custody by the U.S. Marshals Eastern Pennsylvania Violent Crime Fugitive Task Force in the Cobbs Creek neighborhood in West Philadelphia.
The DA breaks down Hurst's alleged role in the four murders from Dec. 2020 and March 2021. The first murder was of 20-year-old Dyewoo Scruggs, an aspiring comedian who was walking to catch a bus to work in Overbrook on Christmas Eve in 2020, according to the release. Officials said Hurst was 16 years old at the time.
The second murder happened during another shooting in Overbrook in March 2021. Hurst shot at four young men, killing two people, 24-year-old Naquan Smith and 17-year-old Tamir Brown.
Within a week a part of the Overbrook shooting in 2021, officials said Hurst and his co-conspirators fatally shot 20-year-old Rodney Hargrove outside of the Curran-Fromhold Correctional Facility in the Holmesburg section of Northeast Philly and then ran over his body with a car. The shooting was after Hurst and members of YBC got information that an alleged member of a rival group was going to be released, according to the DA. Hargrove wasn't the intended target.
Hurst was arrested in April 2021 in connection to the four murders and a string of robberies the DA said he committed with other co-conspirators in West Philadelphia. He was released from the Curran-Fromhold Correctional Facility and rearrested about a week later.
"Ameen Hurst, who posed a grave danger to the public, can no longer harm our community thanks to the excellent work of the U.S. Marshals Service, Philadelphia Police Department, and Assistant District Attorneys Anthony Voci and Brett Zakeosian," Krasner said in the release. "It is hard to overstate the threat to public safety that this reckless and dangerous defendant posed to our city. But it's also important to note that this swift investigation, apprehension, and prosecution is a reminder to anyone else who thinks they can act like a one-person crime wave that you will be caught and held accountable to the fullest extent of the law."