Philadelphia to mark 1 year after Kingsessing mass shooting with vigil and community center
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Philadelphia will honor the victims of the Kingsessing mass shooting one year later with a vigil set for Wednesday night two blocks from where the suspected killer was caught.
A year ago on July 3, 2023, four people were killed in Kingsessing just hours before Independence Day celebrations began: 20-year-old Lashyd Merritt, 29-year-old Dymir Stanton, 59-year-old Ralph Moralis and 15-year-old Da'Juan Brown. Authorities would later discover 31-year-old Joseph Wamah, Jr., who police believe had been shot days earlier - and that dispatchers may not have sent officers to the right address.
The vigil will begin at 7 p.m. at the Salt and Light Community Church on 58th and Chester.
At the event, the community will be introduced to Tim Massaquoi, the executive director of the Kingsessing Heals Community Resiliency Center. The church said CRCs are federally funded hubs that can help communities recover after mass shootings — and that similar organizations exist in Uvalde, Texas; Las Vegas, Nevada; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and Buffalo, New York, among others.
"This community center will be a game changer for a community like Kingsessing, that daily deals with trauma due to violence," Rev. Cean James of the Salt and Light Church said in a statement. "Tim's experience working with young African-American males will prayerfully help us expose this generation to much-needed trauma care that hopefully will restore a spirit of hope in Southwest Philadelphia and beyond."
What happened in Kingsessing on July 3, 2023
After some storms passed, July 3 was a warm Monday night leading up to the Fourth of July, bringing many people outdoors.
Around 56th Street and Chester Avenue, residents of the city's Kingsessing neighborhood — in Southwest Philadelphia — were out enjoying "what was supposed to be a beautiful summer evening," former Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw said at the time.
But celebration or relaxation gave way to terror, with people running through the streets and ducking for cover after a man armed with an AR-style "ghost gun" rifle and other guns, and clad in a bulletproof vest, began shooting at people.
A woman in her car with her niece and her 2-year-old twin boys was hit by broken glass as the shooter fired at them. One of the boys was shot multiple times in the leg, needing physical therapy.
A pair of teenage friends, with many weeks of summer vacation still ahead of them, walked home from the corner store - only one of them made it back. A 13-year-old survived by rolling under a parked car and playing dead as his friend, 15-year-old Da'Juan Brown, distracted the shooter and was killed.
"As a grown man, what can a kid do to you that you want to harm them?" the 13-year-old's father, Rafiq Fitzgerald, said last year. "I just pray that my son can get the proper justice because... my son is scarred forever."
By the time the shooter, then-40-year-old Kimbrady Carriker, was cornered in an alley and arrested, he had shot eight people.
Carriker, now 41 years old, is next due in court in August for a pretrial hearing. According to court documents, Carriker is in the Delaware County Prison and charged with dozens of crimes, including five counts of murder and five counts of attempted murder.
Wednesday night's vigil will feature Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon and City Councilmember Jamie Gauthier. There will also be mental health professionals on site to offer counseling and support.
"Their presence underscores the importance of addressing the mental health impacts of such tragedies and ensuring that individuals have access to necessary resources for healing," Salt and Light Community Church said in a statement.
This is a developing story and will be updated.