Early in the morning of July 2, the 1600 block of Southwest Philadelphia’s 56th Street exploded with gunfire. It was so noisy that Zahirah Muhammad throw yourself under the bed. She recalled in an interview: “I didn’t know if it was coming from the road behind or in front of me.
But a woman passing by knew. Around midnight, she saw a man dressed in black standing in front of Joseph Wamah’s house. The man at the door loudly announced he was a cop, then a sheriff, she said, and then he opened fire. The man burst into the door, she recalled; Several shots rang out, and soon the man ran out of the house and down the street.
The woman waited for the police to arrive, assuming the neighbors would call 911. But more than an hour passed. So she called 911 herself, she said, and told everything to the dispatcher who responded.
But the police never showed up.
On Monday, Philadelphia police officials explained why the apparent error of a 911 dispatcher that morning meant the deadly South 56th Street shooting was not known to authorities until the next night. At the time, the man now suspected of killing Mr. Wamah carried out one of the city’s deadliest mass shootings.
As police first revealed Sunday night, following a 911 call early in the morning of July 2, a dispatcher sent officers to the wrong address — North 56th Street instead of South 56th Street , three miles away in another police precinct. As police later determined, Mr. Wamah was killed by the man who barged in the door. And the man charged in Mr. Wamah’s death is Kimbrady Carriker, who prosecutors say stalked the neighborhood the next night, masked and in body armor, frantically firing a rifle-style gun attack and kill four people.
Arrested shortly after, Mr. Carriker, 40, was charged with murder and other charges and is currently being held without bail.
The city’s police commissioner, Danielle M. Outlaw, said at a press conference that the discovery of the error “adds to the tragedy that has already occurred” and that the incident is under administrative investigation.
But she stressed that even if police had arrived at the correct address on July 2, Mr. Wamah could have been dead. It is also unclear if police were able to prevent the next day’s massacre, she added. Officials said that although investigators obtained video footage of the gunman entering Wamah’s home, the man in the video was wearing a mask. They were able to link Mr. Wamah’s murder to Mr. Carriker’s by matching the cartridge cases at the scene with the gun Mr. Carriker was carrying when he was arrested on July 3.
Ms Outlaw said: “While it may give us investigative clues, the ability to cut out that or cut out what happens afterwards, we don’t know.
In the neighborhood, many people do not believe. Some say that even if police did not arrest Mr. Carriker immediately, they would have been alert that there was a killer in the neighborhood.
Nyshyia Thomas, 34, whose 15-year-old son, Dajuan Brown, was killed in a mass shooting on July 3, said: “They could certainly have prevented this. “I feel as if the police department, the city of Philadelphia, has failed me.”
The woman who said she called 911, identifying herself only as Nadirah in an interview on Monday, said she made two calls and at one point another person, identified by police as supervisor, called, asked her to confirm. Address. But the confusion continues. The person on the phone told her officers were there, she said, but she saw no one.
“If they come, they will find him,” she said, referring to Mr. Wamah, who was still open before she spoke to 911. It was closed that morning, she said.
At the press conference, Deputy Commissioner Frank Vanore explained how police eventually pieced together what happened. After the shooting on July 3, a family member went to check on Mr. Wamah and alerted the police after finding his body. Although police initially did not know when Mr Wamah was killed, they found evidence linking him to Mr Carriker and considered Mr Wamah to be the fifth victim of a mass shooting.
But days later, the medical examiner concluded that Mr. Wamah died long before the other victims of the mass shooting. Several people on the street also told detectives about the shooting early in the morning of July 2. Police watched video footage of Mr. Wamah’s home early Sunday morning, and they saw what people saw. 911 call reported: a man opened fire and then entered the house. House.
While Mr. Wamah’s killing on July 2 appeared to be more targeted than the erratic shooting the following night, Mr. Vanore said investigators had yet to find any prior connection. between Mr. Wamah and Mr. Carriker.
Ms Outlaw stressed that it is impossible to say how things could have turned out differently if officers had been sent to the correct address. However, she said, people who knew him may have raised concerns about Mr. Carriker and who had told police he had acted erratically in the days before the massacre.
“We know that there were a number of people around the suspect who, prior to this happening, may have reported some information that they knew,” she said. “Perhaps this could have prevented this from happening. But, even then, we don’t know.”
