Two men expected to be charged with killing American Airlines flight attendant outside his South Philadelphia home
Amadou Thiam died after he was found on the pavement outside his South Philadelphia home in November. Two men will now be charged with murder, police said.
Two men are expected to be charged with murder in connection with the death of an American Airlines flight attendant who was found beaten and lying naked outside his South Philadelphia home last year, police said Sunday.
Amadou Thiam, 50, was found on the pavement behind his home on the 2400 block of Federal Street with severe injuries to his face, neck, and body on the night of Nov. 10, police said.
Deputy Commissioner Frank Vanore said that, within a few weeks, investigators had identified two men who they believed had been inside Thiam’s apartment at the time his body was found, and had stolen some of his clothes.
But because the circumstances surrounding Thiam’s death were initially so puzzling — including a question of whether he fell, jumped, or was pushed out of his third-story window — the medical examiner’s office did not immediately issue a ruling on the cause of his death.
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Last week, after an expert examination, the medical examiner declared Thiam’s death a homicide, Vanore said — paving the way for prosecutors to approve charges against the two men they believe are responsible for the crime.
He declined to identify the men, but said they will be charged with murder, burglary, robbery, and related crimes. They are expected to turn themselves in to police in the coming days, he said.
The circumstances and motive surrounding the attack were not immediately clear Sunday. Vanore said investigators still don’t how Thiam ended up going out the window, but that the men beat him inside the house and were ultimately responsible for his fall.
The development was welcome news to Thiam’s loved ones, who had been waiting for months for an arrest, at times frustrated that the men they believed killed him were free.
“For more than three months, they were allowed to have their own lives — Christmas, Thanksgiving, New Year’s,“ said Barry Rucks, Thiam’s partner of four years.
Rucks said that he and Thiam’s family hope they will finally get answers to their many outstanding questions, including who the men are, why Thiam had let them into his apartment, and why they attacked him.
“What we care about now is that whoever thought that they could beat someone, throw them out a window, and just walk away ... that person should be off the street; that is not a human being,” he said.
Thiam, who was originally from Côte d’Ivoire, had worked for American Airlines since 2011 and, as a French speaker, frequented international flights to Paris and Zurich. He was a proud American citizen, Rucks said.
Friends and colleagues described Thiam as a “shining star” who “made everyone else feel seen.” He traveled, danced, and wore stylish clothes. He loved to make people smile, they said, and had crafted a stage name, “Amadiva,” for a yearly drag performance he gave at the Center City club Voyeur to help fundraise for the American Airlines Wings Foundation.
In an interview after Thiam’s death, Idriss Thiam said his older brother was the sixth of eight children. Their parents, he said, had died in recent years, and so his brother was often like a parent and mentor to him.
Idriss Thiam, 33, who lives in Montreal and is an accountant, said his brother encouraged him to apply for master’s programs in Canada, then helped him move across the world. When he was married a few years ago, his brother was his witness.
“Amadou was always there for me,” he said. “He was the kind of person who would not let life get him down. He always found a way to find the good and to help people.”
That his brother could be taken so suddenly and violently, he said, has shaken his family.
Thiam’s neighbors found his body just before 7 p.m. on Nov. 10. The neighbors, who asked not to be identified for fear of reprisal, said they had heard loud noises coming from the apartment but assumed he had guests over.
Then, they said, they heard a loud crash behind the building.
They went outside, they said, and saw two men walk out of Thiam’s home.
“Is everything OK?” one neighbor recalled asking the men. “They just kind of chuckled and said, ‘We hope so.’”
The neighbors said they approached Thiam’s door, which was left cracked open, and saw blood smeared across the kitchen and bedroom. Thinking Thiam wasn’t home, they called the police to report a burglary.
As they waited for police, they noticed a stream of blood on the sidewalk outside. And then, they said, they saw Thiam’s body on the pavement.
Thiam was rushed to Penn Presbyterian Medical Center, where he remained in critical condition for two days. Idriss Thiam recalled sitting by his brother’s hospital bed, holding his hand until he took his last breath.
“I told him that I am very proud of him. I told him that he had a good life, that I will make everything to honor him,” he said. “And that when I will have my first child, I am sure their first name will be Amadou.”