Philadelphia mass shooting suspect told police he did it to clean up neighborhood, sources say

() — The man accused of fatally shooting five people in Philadelphia on Monday told police, in a nutshell, that he carried out the attack to clean up the neighborhood, two law enforcement sources told .

Authorities are also investigating a social media page — believed to belong to the man accused of shooting Kimbrady Carriker, 40 — which includes a series of messages about guns, the Second Amendment and “loss of liberties.” , according to a source.

The last post on the social network was made at 10:49 a.m. Miami time on Monday and featured an advertising video for a tactical weapon accessories company. The video shows a man in tactical gear, holding what appears to be a military-style rifle.

In May, Carriker shared posts from pro-gun groups supporting former President Donald Trump and the Second Amendment. In June, she shared a mocking video of a speech by President Joe Biden and added her view that Biden was trying to “take our guns away.”

That same day he posted: “The only thing scarier than blindness is being the only one who can see.”

In addition, other witnesses said that Carriker had been displaying “abnormal behavior for quite some time,” Philadelphia Assistant District Attorney Joanne Pescatore said at a news conference Wednesday.

Other people who lived in the same house “thought he was getting more and more agitated as the days went by,” Pescatore said.

There were seven other people living in that house with Carriker, according to Assistant District Attorney Bob Wainwright.

Details about the suspect’s background come two days after he appeared to shoot randomly across several blocks in the Kingsessing neighborhood of southwest Philadelphia.

Agents apprehended Carriker during a foot pursuit, and he had an AR-style rifle, a 9mm pistol, a scanner that tracks emergency response radio traffic and was wearing a bulletproof vest and ski mask, authorities said.

Wainwright said it appears only the rifle was fired during the attack.

Both firearms were privately manufactured weapons known as “ghost guns,” Philadelphia Police Deputy Commissioner of Investigations Frank Vanore said Wednesday. The firearms did not have any markings and are not traceable, Vanore added.

In a court hearing held on Wednesday, Carriker was charged with murder, attempted murder, assault, reckless endangerment and possession of weapons, and was ordered held without bail. He was not asked to plead guilty.

Investigators found a will written in the suspect’s handwriting and dated June 23 during a search of his home, according to Wainwright. He said the will did not describe any plans to carry out the shooting that he knew of.

Investigators also found a .380-caliber handgun, ammunition and cartridges that matched ammunition found at the shooting scene, Wainwright said.

The shooting is one of at least 350 mass shootings in the United States so far this year, according to the Gun Violence Archive. and the NGO define a mass shooting as one in which four or more people are shot, not including the attacker. In addition to the violence in Philadelphia, at least three people were killed and eight injured in a shooting Monday night in Fort Worth, Texas, and two people were killed and 28 injured in a shooting in Baltimore the previous day.

Messages about the loss of freedoms

On his Facebook page, Carriker posted photos of armed protesters dressed as Black Panthers taken at a protest in Atlanta in 2020. He posted that they were “exercising their First and Second Amendment rights.”

She also posted a meme with photos of actor Wesley Snipes dressed as the vampire slayer from “Blade” and drag queen Noxeema from the movie “To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar.” About Snipes as Blade, the caption read, “Me at the BLM protest.” Above Snipes as Noxeema, it read: “Me in Pride.”

The page has references to God and prayer posted in the last week, including a passage from the book of Isaiah posted by Carriker that begins: “Only I am the Lord, the only one who can save you.” Another post quotes Nehemiah: “But we pray to our God and watch the city day and night to protect ourselves.”

In another post, he complained about what he considered a loss of freedom. And in a post this week, he wrote a quote that read: “We often accept the loss of liberties in the name of security. But we never feel safer and we never get liberties back.”

On June 20, he complained about crime in the community. “During community patrols I have noticed great shame. Many of our 50, 60, 70 year olds are negatively influencing the youth. They are undoubtedly promoting and participating in robberies, prostitution, scams and homicides.”

There are also plenty of inconsequential and humorous memes.

The Philadelphia Public Defender’s Office, which represents Carriker, said it would not comment on the case at this time.

The victims were between the ages of 15 and 59.

The people who lost their lives in the shooting were Daujan Brown, 15; Lashyd Merritt, 20; Dymir Stanton, 29; Ralph Moralis, 59; and Joseph Wamah Jr, 31, police said. Wamah’s body was found in a home early Tuesday, while those of the others were found Monday night, according to authorities.

Two boys, ages 2 and 13, were shot in the legs and are in stable condition, according to police. A 33-year-old woman and a 2-year-old boy were injured by glass, according to authorities.

The two 2-year-old boys are twins who were in a car with their mother when they were shot, authorities said at a press conference Tuesday.

“On what was supposed to be a beautiful summer afternoon, this armed and armored individual wreaked havoc, firing a rifle at his victims seemingly at random,” Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw said at a news conference this morning. Tuesday afternoon.

Carriker had a prior conviction for possession of weapons, Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner told on Wednesday.

The shooting was a “deliberate, premeditated, random homicide carried out with an assault rifle,” Krasner added.

“This is about someone who set out to kill strangers, which of course has become all too common in the United States,” Krasner said. The suspect “did not appear to have a connection to any of the victims,” ​​he said, and the victims did not appear to have any connections to one another.

He said there was good reason to believe that the AR-15 and the other weapon “may have been obtained illegally.” The investigation into the legality of the gun will take time, he said, “in part … because the NRA has done a hell of a job trying to make it difficult for people to investigate the origin of a gun.”

“He had a gun possession conviction in 2003, and yet we find ourselves looking at five people dead as a result of a mass shooting, in which he was well armed and had another firearm at his residence,” Krasner added.

The district attorney’s office initially referred to the suspect using the English pronouns “they/them,” based on the information it had at the time, he said. Now, the prosecution refers to the suspect as male.

“They took my son”

Lashyd Merritt, 20, was killed in the shooting on Monday. Credit: Marie Merritt

Marie Merritt mourns the loss of the youngest of her five children, Lashyd Merritt, one of those killed Monday in the shooting.

Her son was on his way to a store to buy a sandwich when he was shot, Marie Merritt told WPVI, affiliate.

“They took my son. They took my baby,” she told the network. “It was my award. It was my number 1 award, and he knows it. I miss him so much.”

Investigators believe Wamah, the victim found dead inside a home in Kingsessing, was the first person to die in the shooting, authorities said Tuesday.

Wamah’s father found her lifeless body in the living room of the house around 12:30 p.m. Tuesday, City Police Chief Inspector Scott Small said.

Wamah had been shot multiple times and was pronounced dead shortly after by medics on the scene, according to Small.

— ‘s Steve Almasy, Dakin Andone, Aya Elamroussi, Jennifer Feldman, Mike Figliola, Eric Levenson, Laura Ly, Celina Tebor and Michelle Watson contributed to this report.