A man was arrested in connection with the murder of a 25-year-old man who was shot to death in Philadelphia while walking his dog.
A second suspect has been identified, the Philadelphia police said.
The victim, Milan Loncar, was walking his dog on Wednesday night when two men wearing dark colored clothes and masks approached him, police said.
One of the suspects drew a gun and pointed at Loncar while the other searched the man’s pockets. Loncar was shot in the upper chest and the two suspects fled.
The patrol officers were alerted to a shooting just before 7 pm and found Loncar lying on a highway. He was pronounced dead in the hospital. Police said the entire shooting was captured on surveillance video.
One of the suspects, Josephus Davis, 20, was arrested that night after highway patrol officers stopped a vehicle that had been taken in a car theft. Four men fled the vehicle, but Davis was arrested, police said.
“After further investigation, the driver’s clothes were the same as those of the man who shot Milan Loncar hours earlier,” the Philadelphia police said.
Authorities identified Davis as the sniper. He was charged with murder and other crimes. It is not clear whether he got a lawyer.
Davis was released from prison in late December after his bail was lowered on unrelated criminal charges, according to NBC Philadelphia. Court records show that his bail on an aggravated assault charge has been reduced from $ 200,000 to $ 12,000; his bail for a car theft has been reduced to $ 20,000.
Philadelphia police inspector Derrick Wood criticized the decision to reduce Davis’ bail.
“This man was on the street with two criminal cases open because his bail was reduced from 200,000 to 12,000. This is ridiculous and another example of bail decisions being made without considering the safety of the community ”, he tweeted. “The consequences are important.”
Loncar graduated from Temple University with an engineering degree in December 2019. Keya Sadeghipour, dean of the Temple College of Engineering, said the school was keeping his family “in our thoughts during this very difficult period.”
His mother, Amy Lounsberry, said her son’s death was meaningless.
“There is no reason for that. There is no reason for that,” she told NBC Philadelphia. “He didn’t have any money on him. He didn’t fight back. He didn’t say anything wrong. It’s just too much. It’s just not right.”
