Police identify victims in deadly Philadelphia mass shooting in Kingsessing
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Police have identified the five people killed in Monday's mass shooting in Kingsessing. The victims are 20-year-old Lashyd Merritt, 29-year-old Dymir Stanton, 59-year-old Ralph Moralis, 15-year-old boy Daujan Brown and 31-year-old Joseph Wamah, Jr.
Police said a 40-year-old is in custody with charges pending. District Attorney Larry Krasner said he expects charges to happen on Wednesday when the suspect is due in court.
Krasner said the suspect will face multiple counts of murder.
RELATED: Kingsessing neighborhood on edge after deadly mass shooting
The shooting happened around 8:30 p.m. Monday near 56th Street and Chester Avenue in Philadelphia's Kingsessing neighborhood on the city's southwest side.
Two children were also injured in the shooting, according to police, and are stable.
Police said the alleged shooter was arrested wearing a bulletproof vest and ski mask. They also allegedly had multiple magazines and were carrying a scanner, an AR-15-style rifle and a 9mm handgun.
Mayor Jim Kenney told CBS News Philadelphia that the dealer who sold the suspect the guns "should be sued out of business."
"Where does a person like this get a semiautomatic handgun? Where does a person like this buy a Kevlar vest," Kenney said Tuesday. "This country needs to reexamine its conscience when it comes to Congress or the state legislature and try to figure out how we get these guns out of these people's hands."
The suspect was arrested without incident after a chase in a rear alley on the 1600 block of Frazier Street. Police said there is no link between the alleged shooter and the victims, and the 40-year-old appeared to be shooting aimlessly at people. At least 50 shots were fired, authorities said.
At some point, another person got a gun and returned fire in the direction of the suspect, according to police. That person was taken into custody, however, Krasner said Tuesday that investigators "do not see a basis for concluding that that person's discharge of a firearm was illegal."
"When you're under fire in a mass shooting, there are rights to protect others and rights to protect yourself," Krasner said. "Obviously, the investigation is not complete, but we are not in the practice of keeping people or holding people in custody when we don't have probable cause and when we believe their actions were lawful."
The investigation remains ongoing.
"What happened last night in our Kingsessing neighborhood was unimaginably disgusting and horrifying," Philadelphia Police Commissioner Outlaw said. "On what was supposed to be a beautiful summer evening, this armed and armored individual wreaked havoc… such an act of violence is abhorrent and goes against everything we stand for in this community."
