PHILADELPHIA — One of the five people killed by a gunman who opened fire on the streets of southwest Philadelphia last week was killed 44 hours before the attack, authorities said.
A police spokesperson told WCAU that officials determined that Kimbrady Carriker, 40, killed Joseph Wamah Jr., 31, about 44 hours before he shot six others on the night of July 3.
“Forensic medical examination corroborates that Mr. Wamah was killed long before the other victims were harmed,” District Attorney Larry Krasner said in news release obtained by WPVI-TV. “Additional evidence supports the conclusion that Kimbrady Carriker murdered Wamah on July 2nd and that Carriker also murdered and wounded multiple other victims on July 3rd.”
Police said they got a 911 call reporting gunshots around the 1600 block of South 56th Street at about 2 a.m. on July 2, according to WCAU. A dispatcher sent officers instead to the 1600 block of North 56th Street, where they found no evidence of a shooting, the news station reported.
Officers said they found Wamah dead on the 1600 block of South 56th Street around 12:35 a.m. on July 4.
Krasner said the updated timeline would not impact the number or types of charges filed against Carriker, WCAU reported.
“The grieving family of the deceased has been briefed on this new information, and I cannot express enough the sorrow I feel — and that surely all the officers and detectives working on this investigation must feel — that these developments may be confusing and re-traumatizing for Mr. Wamah’s loved ones,” the district attorney said, according to WPVI.
Two of Wamah’s sisters last week remembered their brother as a skilled artist and family man.
“He was a kind soul,” Joseph Wamah’s twin sister, Josephine, said at a news conference. “He was nice to everyone. He was good to everyone.”
Authorities initially believed four people were killed in the shooting. Officers found Wamah dead about four hours after they said Carriker began firing on people in Philadelphia’s Kingsessing neighborhood. Wamah’s neighbors told The Philadelphia Inquirer that he lived alone with his father on the 1600 block of South 56th Street.
Four people between the ages of 15 and 59 died in the July 3 shooting and two children, aged 2 and 13, were injured by gunfire, officials said.
Carriker faces charges including murder and assault. A judge has ordered that he be held without bail as he awaits trial.
