UPDATE: Wednesday, Nov. 17, 11:30 a.m.
The Philadelphia Police Department has identified the owner of the Any Checks Cashed in Ogontz as Aruna Mittal. Officers found her in the back room, where responding medics pronounced her dead.
The motive is robbery. No one has been arrested. Police are searching for a suspect who was last seen wearing a blue hoodie, blue vest, dark pants and shoes, and carrying a red or orange drawstring backpack.
Police ask anyone with information to contact the Homicide Unit at 215-686-3334 or leave an anonymous tip at 215-686-TIPS. There is a $20,000 reward for information leading to an arrest and conviction.
The original story from Tuesday follows:
PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Philadelphia police are investigating the shooting death of a 67-year-old woman inside the business she owned.
Police said the shooting and robbery happened early Tuesday afternoon at a Western Union check-cashing location on Old York Road near Grange Avenue in the Ogontz neighborhood of North Philadelphia.
The woman was being followed by a suspect as she entered her business, and the suspect forced his way inside the rear of the business behind the safety glass, according to authorities.
Police tell KYW Newsradio that video captured an immediate violent struggle between the woman and the suspect, at which point the suspect shot the business owner in the chest. It appeared some money was taken after the woman was shot.
Related
A location for the Precious Babies Learning Academy, a pre-school and day care center, is next door to the location of the shooting.
"Yeah, it's kind of scary because she goes to school right here," Jamal Tucker said after he went to pick up his daughter Tuesday afternoon from the center.
He had to walk around the scene of a deadly shooting, what he believes is an all-too-familiar occurrence.
"It's like people becoming desensitized to it. It's like we see and we walk past it like it's the norm, and that's the sad part," said Tucker, who said people are "using any excuse out here to do what they think they need to do" and he tries to keep his kids close to him.
"People becoming accustomed to it," he said, "and we shouldn't be."
Stay with KYW Newsradio on-air and online for more details as they come in to us.
