Police have identified a man who they say shot and killed two men near the Hunting Park Recreation Center within days last month and shot and wounded a third man in May in what investigators believe are linked crimes.
Jahylin Melchur, 21, is wanted in connection with two homicides and the shooting near the large North Philadelphia park, according to police.
He is accused of killing 45-year-old Martin Higgins in the park on June 20. Officers found Higgins on the bleachers of the baseball field around 10 p.m. that evening suffering from a gunshot wound to the torso, police said. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
Less than a week later, police said, Melchur shot and killed 29-year-old Sharef Holman not far from where Higgins was killed.
Officers responded there on June 26 just before 11 p.m. and found Holman suffering from multiple gunshot wounds near the basketball courts. He was taken to Temple University Hospital, where he died a short time later.
And on May 29, investigators said, Melchur shot a 55-year-old man in Juniata Park, about two miles from the recreation center. The victim survived his injuries and later told police Melchur had attempted to rob him before shooting him in the elbow and torso.
Police are seeking the public’s help in finding Melchur, who they say is considered armed and dangerous and whose image, captured on surveillance footage at a Broad Street Line station, was circulated widely last week in an effort to locate him.
Law enforcement sources said the victims were found partially clothed, and that they were looking into whether they had met the suspect through a dating app.
Deputy Police Commissioner Frank Vanore declined to address that aspect of the investigation in a news conference last week and said police were looking into whether the incidents were related to robberies.