PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Jurors in Montgomery County heard final testimony Tuesday in a first degree murder case allegedly rooted in a gang member's insult on Instagram.
Jabriil Morgan-Cook, Naseem Worrell and Kaleem Roland were 18, 17 and 15 years old when prosecutor Tanner Beck said they hunted down Tahaj Harrison, 20, in May 2025, shooting and killing him outside his Corson Street home in Norristown.
Beck said the violence was sparked by a disrespectful expletive that Harrison posted about a 15-year-old affiliated with a rival Norristown gang who was shot and killed in Philadelphia in May 2025. That, he said, was enough to inflame an east-versus-west gang war in Norristown that dates back to the 1990s.
During the nearly two-week trial, jurors viewed parts of an Instagram live video from hours before Harrison was killed showing Morgan-Cook, Worrell and Roland flashing gang signs and saying they were “going hunting.” Beck said that amounted to confessing to the entire world.
Defense attorneys said prosecutors are trying to create an abstract concept of gangs to link their clients to the murder. Despite all the evidence, they argued nothing definitively links them to the murder, and while the Instagram video may be offensive and juvenile, it is not murder itself.
Jurors are expected to begin deliberations Wednesday on murder and conspiracy charges.
