PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — The U.S. Marshals Service in Philadelphia arrested a man Thursday morning wanted in connection with a mass shooting last year in West Philadelphia that left three people dead and six injured.
Marshals took 32-year-old Amir Jones into custody around 6 a.m. after they executed a search warrant at a house on Kershaw Street, near Lancaster Avenue, in West Philadelphia.
That’s about a five-minute drive from the block of Alden Street near Carroll Park, where authorities said Jones was one of the gunmen who opened fire at a summer block party a year ago.
The shooting happened around 2 a.m. on July 21, 2024. Police said two groups of men began shooting at each other, while more than 100 people were at the block party.
Officials said an argument escalated into a gun battle. More than 100 shell casings were found at the scene.
Jones was wanted on three counts of homicide in connection with the shooting. Another man, Tahir Shoatz, who was injured in the gunfight, was also arrested in connection with the shooting not long after it happened.
“Initially, we had tried to have family members surrender Amir Jones, but that failed,” said Robert Clark, supervisory deputy with the U.S. Marshals Service. He said they were told on multiple occasions that Jones was getting an attorney and turning himself in, but deadlines passed.
“It was just a grind for a year, day in and day out,” he said. “We were following leads, conducting our own investigations. We had offered a reward for him.”
Clark said it was only over the last couple of weeks that marshals zeroed in on an apartment on Kershaw Street, where they believed Jones was staying. They got a search warrant approved the night before his arrest.
When they breached the door in the morning, authorities said Jones initially did not comply, but after 30 minutes, he came downstairs and turned himself in without incident.
“He was upstairs. He was trying to call family members. He wanted to say goodbye,” Clark said. “We just took our time, trying to speak to him, negotiate with him, and eventually he complied.
“When these senseless acts of violence occur, there is an elite investigative group out there working to bring these people to justice so they’re not on the streets of Philadelphia, so they can’t hurt somebody else again, and that we can make these communities safer.”