An East Germantown man admitted he struck and killed a woman in a wheelchair with his car in Lower Merion last year, then fled without helping her or calling police.
Jamal McCullough, 38, pleaded guilty to accidents involving death for hitting Tracey Carey outside the Taco Bell restaurant on City Avenue in November of last year.
McCullough entered the plea Tuesday — the day he was expected to go to trial — as Carey’s relatives looked on. The family later expressed frustration at their belief that the man who killed her showed little remorse.
McCullough will serve three to six years in state prison, the mandatory minimum sentence for the crime to which he pleaded guilty.
McCullough’s attorney, Michael Parkinson, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
McCullough struck Carey, 61, with his Toyota Camry on Nov. 11, 2024, as she attempted to cross the highway in her wheelchair. And while prosecutors noted that McCullough was not at fault in the fatal collision because Carey was crossing outside of a posted crosswalk, they said his actions after the crash constituted a crime.
Surveillance footage taken from the scene showed that McCullough hit Carey with enough force to send her body into the air and push it several feet away, according to the affidavit of probable cause for his arrest.
The collision occurred around 2:14 a.m., as McCullough was on his way to begin his shift as a sanitation worker with Waste Management. Afterward, surveillance cameras recorded him pulling into a nearby parking lot to assess the damage to his vehicle and then walking back to the scene of the crash.
Investigators said McCullough walked within feet of Carey’s body, but did not stop to help her.
Another driver who witnessed the crash called 911 and used his vehicle to block traffic and protect Carey, the affidavit said.
She was later pronounced dead at Lankenau Medical Center.
Investigators identified McCullough’s vehicle through broken pieces of the vehicle that were left at the scene, as well as the surveillance footage from the area, according to the affidavit
McCullough’s coworkers told police that in explaining the visible damage to his car, he initially said the vehicle had been hit while it was parked. After his photo was included in news reports about the crash, McCullough told his coworkers he hit a person in a wheelchair and promised to turn himself in.
When detectives came to interview him at his workplace, McCullough said he wanted to take full responsibility for his actions, the affidavit said, and was making arrangements to surrender his vehicle to police.
A former West Philadelphia ward leader and onetime staffer for State Sen. Vincent Hughes was sentenced Wednesday to one year in federal prison for stealing more than $140,000 from his ward and a church where he served as a deacon.
Willie Jordan, 68, had pleaded guilty to two counts of wire fraud over the summer. During his sentencing hearing Wednesday before U.S. District Judge Harvey Bartle III, Jordan said that he was sorry and that there were no excuses for his misconduct.
“It was a bad decision,” Jordan said. “It was just wrong.”
Bartle agreed, telling Jordan that although he appeared to have lived an otherwise noble life — dedicating his time and career to serving the public — stealing from institutions that sought to help people was inexcusable.
“What’s so disappointing is you had a position of trust … and you abused that position of trust,” Bartle said. “And the amount of money you took were not insignificant sums.”
Jordan for years was the unpaid leader of the 44th Ward in West Philadelphia and also a deacon at Mount Calvary Baptist Church in North Philadelphia. Prosecutors said that he had near-total control over the finances of both organizations, and that from 2020 to 2024 he took advantage of that status by writing checks to himself to cover personal expenses, including credit card and utility bills, purchases from airlines and furniture stores, and costs associated with a relative’s funeral.
In all, prosecutors said, he stole more than $57,000 from the church and $85,000 from the ward, and often claimed the money was to reimburse the organizations for expenses they never incurred. To further conceal his wrongdoing, prosecutors said, he sometimes wrote false entries on checks’ memo lines, saying they were to pay for items such as Easter baskets or summer youth programs.
Much of the fraud occurred while Jordan was working in Hughes’ office, prosecutors said, where he was a longtime top aide and had a six-figure state salary.
Jordan’s attorney, Sam Stretton, said that Jordan retired from that job earlier this year amid the federal investigation into his crimes, and that he also is no longer a ward leader.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Louis Lappen said in court that the repeated nature of Jordan’s wrongdoing, and his status as a well-paid public employee, made his crimes stand out.
“He’s somebody who should have known better,” Lappen said.
Stretton said Jordan “made a terrible mistake but is an otherwise good person.” He said Jordan has already repaid the $57,000 he stole from the church and is continuing to donate hundreds of dollars per month to help cover its bills and other expenses. Jordan also is continuing to make restitution payments to the ward, Stretton said.
Several of Jordan’s relatives wept in the courtroom after Bartle imposed his sentence. The judge then paused and addressed Jordan again before adjourning the hearing.
“You’re going to have to pay the price of your crimes, but there is life after prison, and I hope you will continue to be a useful and productive citizen,” Bartle said. “There is redemption.”
As the murder trial for two men charged in the shooting death of Philadelphia Police Officer Richard Mendez drew to a close Tuesday, prosecutors and defense attorneys offered differing interpretations of what happened on that violent October 2023 evening.
Assistant District Attorney Cydney Pope said a group of men — including 20-year-old Yobranny Martinez-Fernandez and 23-year-old Hendrick Pena-Fernandez — went out that night with the goal of stealing cars, a business she said they carried out like a “well-oiled machine.” That, she said, included Martinez-Fernandez’s role of enforcer as he carried a 9mm handgun to protect the operation.
Mendez, 50, and his partner, Raul Ortiz, were shot after they interrupted the group’s attempt to steal a Dodge Charger in parking lot D at Philadelphia International Airport.
Prosecutors said Martinez-Fernandez was under the steering wheel programming a new key fob when he fired his gun, shooting Mendez multiple times through the torso and hitting Raul once in the arm. He also unintentionally shot an 18-year-old man who was one of the group’s accomplices, they said.
Martinez-Fernandez was charged with first-degree murder, robbery, and related crimes. Pena-Fernandez, who prosecutors say assisted in the crime, faces charges of second-degree murder and related crimes.
With both men facing life in prison without parole if convicted, defense attorneys Robert Gamburg and Earl G. Kauffman urged jurors to conclude that prosecutors had failed to make the case for their guilt.
For one, they said jurors should question whether prosecutors had presented sufficient evidence to prove that the men had even been at the crime scene that evening.
And they cast doubt on the account of the prosecution’s star witness — a man who was involved in the crime, and took the stand to implicate the two men after pleading guilty to lesser charges. Alexander Batista-Polanco, who the lawyers said stands to gain a lighter sentence in exchange for his cooperation with prosecutors, could not be trusted, they said.
Pope scoffed at the suggestion Batista-Polanco had lied in exchange for favorable treatment and reminded jurors that witnesses face the risk of violence to themselves, and to their families, when speaking out. She said she believed Batista-Polanco would likely be “looking over his shoulder for the rest of his life.”
Pope pointed to evidence including cell phone data and recovered DNA linking the men to the crime, which stretched from the South Philadelphia sports complex to the Cranbury, N.J., warehouse where she said the men torched the vehicle they used to flee the scene.
Gamburg, who represents Pena-Fernandez, suggested that prosecutors had erred in charging him with second-degree murder, a killing during the commission of a felony like robbery, arson, or rape. In this case, he suggested, stealing a car was more like theft, and no weapon was used to obtain the vehicle.
Pope, citing the shooting that followed and left a 22-year veteran of the force dead, disagreed.
“You can call it whatever you want,” she said, “but what this is, is robbery.”
The bodies of Sasikala Narra, 38, and her son, Anish, were found in their blood-spattered apartment by their husband and father, Hanumantha Rao Narra, in March 2017. They had been stabbed to death.
In the end, the mystery was unraveled by a single drop of blood, prosecutors said Tuesday as they announced who they believe was the killer.
Nazeer Hameed, 38, has been charged with murder and related crimes in the double stabbing. Authorities say Hameed fled to his native India after the killings, where he remains today.
Hameed worked at Cognizant, a North Jersey tech company with an office in Philadelphia, alongside Hanumantha Narra, and lived in the same apartment complex as the family.
Sasikala Narra, 38, and her son, Anish, 6, were stabbed to death inside their apartment in Maple Shade in 2017.
Patrick Thornton, the chief investigator for the Burlington County Prosecutor’s Office, said he could not reveal any information about Hameed’s potential motives. But he said Hameed had stalked the family for some time before the killings and used his background in tech to hide his movements after the fatal stabbings.
Thornton said Hameed waited until Narra had left the apartment before attacking his family with a series of violent stab and slice wounds to their head and hands. Anish was nearly decapitated in the attack.
“These innocent victims were defenseless during the horrific attack,” Thornton said. “Veteran officers said this was one of the most brutal crime scenes they’ve seen in their careers, and they are still affected by the memory of it.”
Hameed’s indictment, according to Burlington County Prosecutor LaChia Bradshaw, was the result of a yearslong investigation that involved local, state, and federal law enforcement.
And while she said Tuesday that she was pleased to share the news of the charges against Hameed, she stressed that the work for law enforcement was far from over. Hameed is still living in India, and prosecutors in Bradshaw’s office are awaiting assistance from federal authorities to extradite him to New Jersey.
Prosecutors say Nazeer Hameed stalked the Narra family for some time before killing Sasikala and Anish Narra.
“We urge the full cooperation of our two nations to send a message that those who commit crimes cannot escape accountability by crossing oceans,” Bradshaw said.
Hameed was initially considered a person of interest in the case, and later identified as a suspect in 2019, when investigators found a drop of blood at the crime scene that did not belong to the victims.
For the next five years, detectives attempted to compel Hameed to submit a DNA sample, but were unsuccessful. The Indian government agreed to assist in the collection of the specimen, but never acted on that agreement, officials said Tuesday.
A break in the case came in 2024, when Cognizant, the tech company Narra and Hameed worked for, sent local prosecutors the laptop Hameed used. A sample of his DNA was pulled from the device, and was ruled to be a match to the blood found at the crime scene.
Authorities continued to investigate in the months that followed and, on Tuesday, publicly announced his involvement in the crime.
Bradshaw vowed to work with federal authorities and the Indian government to bring Hameed to America to face criminal charges.
“The passage of time does not lessen our resolve,” she said. “No border can stand in the way of justice, and the people of Burlington County deserve closure.”
The mother and son were killed in their Fox Meadows Apartment complex in Maple Shade, N.J.
The Narras immigrated to America from the Prakasam district in Andhra Pradesh state, on India’s eastern coast.
After marrying, they moved to Maple Shade and later enrolled their son in Our Lady of Perpetual Help Catholic School. Teachers there called Anish “a beautiful child of God” in speaking to reporters after his slaying.
Hanumantha Rao Narra could not immediately be reached for comment.
Through a lawyer, Sasikala Narra’s family in India said Tuesday they were relieved to hear that the killer had been identified.
“They’re very appreciative of all the work by law enforcement,” Donald F. Browne Jr. said. “It took a very long time, but that’s how justice goes sometimes, and they’re very thankful that everyone kept fighting and kept trying to find the answer to this case.”
Philadelphia police have arrested a man suspected of killing one person and injuring another in a shooting last month near the sports complex at Broad Street and Packer Avenue in South Philadelphia.
Abou Keita, 22, was arrested Monday on the 2200 block of South Felton Street in Southwest Philadelphia, where police found him inside a parked vehicle. He was taken into custody and has been charged with murder, attempted murder, aggravated assault, and other offenses in connection with the Oct. 9 shooting, officials said.
That incident unfolded just after 6:10 p.m., when police responded to reports of a shooting near the intersection of Packer Avenue and Broad Street. Responding officers found an Audi sedan with 15 bullet holes just south of the intersection, police said.
Police also discovered Hasson Mason, 23, laying in the street with multiple gunshot wounds to his face and body just north of the intersection on Broad. He was taken to Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
Another victim, also a 23-year-old man, was found in front of Chickie’s & Pete’s, a popular restaurant near the sports complex on the 1500 block of Packer Avenue, with gunshot wounds to the torso. The victim, whom police did not identify, was taken to Penn Presbyterian Medical Center, where he was listed in stable condition.
Officials previously told The Inquirer that spent shell casings and a discarded ammunition magazine were discovered near the two shooting scenes. The Audi sedan police discovered struck another car on Broad Street, but the driver in the second vehicle was not harmed, police said.
Police have not said what may have led to the shooting.
A person was hospitalized in stable condition after being stabbed Monday night on a subway platform in Center City on SEPTA’s Market-Frankford Line, an agency spokesperson said.
The stabbing occurred shortly before 10 p.m. at the 5th Street/Independence Hall Station and the victim was taken to Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, said SEPTA spokesperson Andrew Busch.
No arrests were reported and no further information about the victim or what happened was immediately available.
A woman who was found dead inside an abandoned car in Lower Makefield on Sunday had been killed hours earlier by her boyfriend in Trenton, police said Monday.
Lamont Truitt, of Trenton, has been charged with murder, attempted murder, carjacking, and related crimes in the shooting death of Alyssia Murphy, 32. He is also charged with shooting and wounding a friend of Murphy’s who had been sitting with her in a Toyota Camry that police say he stole after the shooting.
Truitt, 36, remained in custody Monday, awaiting a detention hearing in Mercer County.
A passerby found Murphy’s body inside the abandoned Camry early Sunday near an access road to the Delaware Canal, according to police in the Bucks County township. She had been shot multiple times.
Trenton police say the shooting happened just before 6 a.m. on Coolidge Avenue near Oakland Street in the capital city.
Murphy’s friend, whom police did not identify, said she was sitting in the car with Murphy when Truitt approached them. The couple began to argue, she said, and in the heat of their dispute, Truitt pulled out a handgun and fired multiple times at Murphy at close range.
The woman, who was shot in the leg, said she jumped out of the car and ran before Truitt sped off. She was treated at Capital Health Regional Medical Center.
A family friend who asked not to be identified out of fear of retaliation described Murphy as a kind, generous person who had long dreamed of starting a family and “certainly did not deserve to go like that.”
Angelica Javier was sitting at home on a Saturday evening last month when her son’s uncle called in a panic.
Xzavier, her 16-year-old, had been shot, he said — one of the teen’s friends had called and told him, but he knew nothing else.
Javier, 32, frantically checked a news website and saw a brief story mentioning that a man was shot and killed in Northeast Philadelphia.
That could not be her son, she told herself. Xzavier was only a boy, she said — tall but lanky, with the splotchy beginnings of a mustache just appearing on his upper lip.
She called around to hospitals without success. Xzavier’s father, Cesar Gregory, drove to Jefferson Torresdale Hospital, desperate for information.
Then, just before 10 p.m., she said, a homicide detective called to say their eldest child, their only son, had been shot and killed that afternoon near Teesdale and Frontenac Streets.
Angelica Javier (left) and her 16-year-old son, Xzavier Gregory, getting tacos after watching the Eagles beat the Los Angeles Rams earlier this year.
The shooting, police said, stemmed from a dispute among teens at the Jardel Recreation Center, just blocks away, earlier in the week. Xzavier’s parents said the detective told them that one of their son’s friends may have slapped a young woman that day.
On Oct. 11, they said, police told them that Xzavier and his friends stopped by the young woman’s house shortly before 4 p.m. to talk with her, apologize, and resolve the conflict. They shook hands, the parents said, and started to walk away.
Then, police said, the girl’s 17-year-old boyfriend, Sahhir Mouzon, suddenly came out of the house with a gun and started shooting down the block at them. Someone shot back, police said, but it was not Xzavier. In total, 45 bullets were fired.
An 18-year-old woman walking by the teens was wounded in the leg.
Xzavier was struck in the chest and died within minutes.
Mouzon has been charged with murder and related crimes.
Javier and Gregory have been left to navigate life without their “Zay” and to reckon with a loss that comes even as gun violence in the city reaches new lows — but which still persists among young people and brings pain to each family it touches.
They don’t understand how a 17-year-old had a gun, they said, or why a seemingly minor — and potentially resolved — conflict had to escalate.
But mostly, they said, they want Philadelphia to know and remember their child: a goofy junior at Northeast High. An avid Eagles fan. A lover of Marvel movies and spicy foods.
Xzavier Gregory was born in Philadelphia. His parents loved his chubby cheeks.Xzavier Gregory was born Sept. 20, 2009, to Angelica Javier and Cesar Gregory.
Xzavier Giovanni Gregory was born Sept. 20, 2009, at Temple University Hospital in North Philadelphia. His parents, just teens at the time, were immediately taken by his chubby cheeks, which he kept until his teenaged years.
He lived in Kensington until he was about 10 years old, his mother said, when they moved to the Northeast. He attended Louis H. Farrell School, then spent his freshman year at Father Judge High before moving to Northeast High.
He loved traveling, and often visited family in Florida and the Dominican Republic, attended football camps in Georgia and Maryland, and tagged along on weekends to New York with his mother as part of her job managing federal after-school programs.
He played football for the Rhawnhurst Raiders, typically as an offensive or defensive lineman, and had a natural skill for boxing, his parents said.
Philadelphia sports were in his blood — particularly the Eagles. DeVonta Smith and A.J. Brown, his father said, were his favorite players. (Before his death, he agreed that Brown should be included in more plays this year, Gregory said.)
Some of Gregory’s favorite memories with his son revolve around the Eagles. Sitting front row at the Linc on his 13th birthday. Erupting in cheers as the team won its first Super Bowl in 2018. Embracing in tears when they won a second this year.
Cesar Gregory (left) and son Xzavier at the Eagles Super Bowl parade near the Art Museum in February. It is a day with his son that the father said he will never forget.
Xzavier was the oldest of three children. His sisters are still too young too fully understand what happened, the parents said.
“He went to heaven,” Javier told 7-year-old Kennedy.
The number of kids shot peaked in 2021 and 2022, when violence citywide reached record highs and guns became the leading cause of death among American children. So far this year, 105 kids under 18 have been shot — a sharp drop from three years ago, but still higher than pre-pandemic levels, according to city data.
Xzavier is one of at least 11 children killed by gunfire this year.
Xzavier Gregory (center) was a goofy teen who attended Northeast High School, his parents said.
Javier and Gregory said some relatives are considering leaving Philadelphia, shaken by Xzavier’s killing and a feeling that teens don’t fear consequences.
But the parents said they will stay. They want to be near Magnolia Cemetery, where Xzavier is buried, and to feel closer to the memories that briefly unite them with him.
On harder days, they said, they go into his bedroom, which is just as he left it, a relic of a teenage boy.
His PlayStation controller sits in the middle of his bed, and a photo of him and his mother hangs on the wall above it. His Nike sneakers are scattered. His black backpack rests on the floor, and a Spider-Man mask sits on the corner of his bedframe.
On Thursday, his parents stood in the room they used to complain was too messy, that smelled like dirty laundry.
“Now, I come in just to smell it,” Javier said.
She took a deep breath.
Staff writer Dylan Purcell contributed to this article.
Three weeks after Philadelphia police and federal agents raided Kensington’s Weymouth Street and arrested more than 30 people in what they called the takedown of a decade-old drug-trafficking gang, residents and neighbors are still feeling the constant presence of law enforcement.
That’s because Philadelphia police officers have since been stationed at either end of the narrow block 24 hours a day — asking anyone who wants to pass through to show identification, and declining to let people walk or drive through if they don’t live there.
Deputy Police Commissioner Pedro Rosario said the strategy was part of an attempt to ensure that the block — which had long been a hub of open-air drug dealing — not fall back under control of a new or rival drug organization. Officials who announced the takedown effort last month, including FBI Director Kash Patel, said the case was an attempt to “dismantle” the gang that controlled the 3100 block of Weymouth, and Rosario said he wanted to ensure the results of that investigation had time to take root.
Although limiting public access to a street is unusual, Rosario said that the neighbors he has heard from have been supportive, and that he viewed the effort as an attempt “to stabilize the neighborhood.” Mayor Cherelle L. Parker’s administration has made addressing crime and living conditions in Kensington a priority, employing a variety of sometimes-controversial strategies to combat issues including drug dealing and homelessness.
“This is the department just trying to give the neighborhood a chance to catch its breath,” Rosario said. “I want the power of that investigation to linger. That way, people can really take into account, ‘Should I be doing [drug] business here in Kensington, or is it finally changing?’”
A spokesperson for Parker referred all comments to the police department.
City Councilmember Quetcy Lozada, who represents the area, said that she, too, has received primarily positive feedback from residents about the situation, and that she viewed the heavy police presence as a way to help ensure the block be given a chance to move forward.
“Everyone knows when one operation is broken down and moved out of the way, there’s always someone looking to move in and replace that,” Lozada said. “I think it’s very important for the police to stay around and for the new norm to stay successful.”
Inquirer reporters visited the block on three days this week seeking to interview residents about the aftermath of the raids, but were denied access by officers sitting in patrol cars at either end of the street.
In phone interviews conducted afterward, three residents said they were either indifferent about, or fine with, the ongoing restrictions.
“I’m either going to be for trying to fix this problem or against it,” said one resident, who requested anonymity to discuss a sensitive issue affecting his block. “And if this is what [police] have to do right now, I think I’d rather have the police there than drug [users] running up and down the street.”
Another resident, who also asked not to be named, said he believed police were “keeping people safe.”
“People appreciate it, that we have somebody doing something about it,” he said.
Jimmy Townsend disagreed. The 51-year-old said that he has lived on the block for three years, and that being questioned on the way to his house amounted to “harassment” and a way to impose consequences on an entire block for the actions of others.
“God forbid I forget my mail or ID, I might get stopped from coming to my own house,” Townsend said. “I was not part of that crime.”
Witold J. Walczak, legal director for the American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania, said government agencies generally have “a significant burden” to justify prohibiting access to areas like public streets or sidewalks. And while police can — and often do — limit access to public places in the middle of major operations, Walczak said he was unsure why police in this instance felt the need to place such restrictions on the block if officers were also stationed there in patrol cars.
“If the police are there anyway, I don’t understand how [not] letting people in and out of the area is going to advance their interests,” he said. “The fact that they’re there should do that without restricting access.”
Rosario, the deputy commissioner, said any time police place a heavy emphasis on one patrol area, they will scale back their presence over time as conditions improve. In this case, he said, “I want to be strategic in how we do that.”
In the meantime, he said, police were continuing to allow delivery trucks and other essential vehicles to access the block, even as officers sought to divert most passersby elsewhere.
“This is us really being deliberate,” he said, “to let this sink in for a second.”
A woman was shot in the wrist and a man was arrested after what police say appeared to be a road rage incident Monday evening in Bucks County.
Around 6:30 p.m., police responded to a reported shooting in the area of the Newtown Bypass and Woodbourne Road in Newtown Township.
The woman, who was driving one of the vehicles involved in the incident, was transported to St. Mary Medical Center and was listed in stable condition, police said.
A few minutes later, the man and the vehicle he was driving were located at Washington Crossing and Stoopville Roads, and he was taken into custody, police said. A gun was recovered for evidence.
Police said both vehicles reportedly were traveling east on Newtown Bypass during the initial encounter and then south onto Woodbourne Road.
Anyone who witnessed the incident or has information helpful to the case can contact the Newtown Township Police Department at 215-579-1000 ext. 317.
