Police search for man who killed a woman, then sexually assaulted, pistol-whipped others, at West Oak Lane beauty salon
A man with a gun attacked three women at ABBA Blessed Beauty Salon in West Oak Lane on Monday, police said. A 34-year-old was shot and killed, and the others were assaulted, they said.
Philadelphia police are seeking to identify a man they say viciously attacked three women who worked at a West Oak Lane beauty salon on Monday afternoon, shooting and killing one and sexually assaulting and pistol-whipping the others.
Around 2 p.m. Monday, Deputy Police Commissioner Frank Vanore said a man armed with a gun walked into ABBA Blessed Beauty Salon, on the 6300 block of Stenton Avenue, and took three female employees into the back of the business.
The suspect shot a 34-year-old woman in the head, Vanore said. The woman was transported by police to Jefferson Einstein Philadelphia Hospital, where she was pronounced dead at 2:35 p.m.
Before police arrived, the suspect then pistol-whipped two other women, ages 33 and 44, sexually assaulted at least one of them before fleeing the salon, Vanore said.
Police identified the shooting victim as Ofelia Bellaniri Hernandez Camill, from the Morningside Heights section of New York City. Her family could not be immediately reached Tuesday.
Vanore called the incident horrific and said it was not immediately clear what motivated the attack. Homicide detectives recovered video and have “significant direction” on a suspect, he said, and hoped to release images of the gunman to the public Tuesday afternoon.
A GoFundMe was created to pay for the New York woman’s funeral and support her family.
The woman, described in Spanish as “our colleague,” tried to defend herself “in an act of bravery” and was killed, the GoFundMe page said.
The owner of the salon, Arisleidy Pérez Gil, was leading the fundraising campaign, the page said. She was seriously injured during the attack and was receiving medical treatment and will need arm surgery.
The third victim also was receiving medical treatment, the page said.
ABBA salon sits among a strip of businesses at a busy intersection near Stenton Avenue and Washington Lane.
On Tuesday evening, a video was posted on ABBA salon’s Facebook page with a woman saying she was conveying the message of the salon’s owner.
The woman in the video mentioned the woman who was killed, who she called “dear Bella,” and asked that respect be shown for her memory, for her family, and for anyone else affected by her death.
In an earlier video posted on the salon’s Facebook page, a woman asked the community to pray for the women who were attacked.
In a 2025 article published by El Sol, Pérez Gil said she immigrated from the Dominican Republic.
Even as shootings and homicides have declined to their lowest levels in more than half a century, reports of sexual assaults and rapes are one of few crime categories on the rise, though they still remain below pre-pandemic levels, city data show.
And while the clearance rate among homicides has improved greatly in recent years and reached about 80% last year, the solve rate for sexual assaults in 2025 was just 21%, according to the police department.
Police are asking anyone with information on Monday’s attack to call the homicide unit at 215-686-3334, or the police department’s secure tip line at 215-686-8477. Tips can also be submitted online.
Staff writer Robert Moran contributed to this article.
