PHILADELPHIA (AP) — A man was shot to death inside a sport utility vehicle in north Philadelphia — and someone later got into the SUV and drove it with the body inside across the city to southwest Philadelphia, police said.
Chief Inspector Scott Small told reporters that investigators were notified just after 10:30 p.m. that someone who knew the victim had tracked his cellphone to the vehicle and called police.
When officers arrived, they found a 25-year-old man in the front passenger seat with at least one gunshot wound to the neck who was pronounced dead at the scene.
But police say they believe he was shot about five hours earlier in the Kensington neighborhood. Police said the SUV driver ran to a police station for help, but arriving officers found ballistic evidence of a shooting but the vehicle and victim gone.
“We’re getting information that after this person was shot, someone was seen getting into the vehicle and then driving the vehicle westbound on Indiana,” Small said. Police say they aren’t sure whether the person who took the vehicle and drove it at least 10 miles was also the shooter.
Police are now looking through surveillance footage to try to identify the person who drove away with SUV and victim. Small called it a “very, very complicated and unusual investigation at this time.
