One man has been arrested for his role in Grays Ferry mass shooting that left 12 shot
Terrell Frazier is among multiple gunmen who shot 12 people on the 1500 bock of South Etting Street, police said.
Philadelphia police on Thursday said they have arrested one of the gunmen involved in a mass shooting in Grays Ferry that left three young men dead and nine others wounded.
Terrell Frazier, 22, was taken into custody Wednesday night at his West Philadelphia home to face charges including three counts of murder, attempted murder, aggravated assault, and risking catastrophe, said Deputy Police Commissioner Frank Vanore.
Vanore said Frazier was one of multiple people who indiscriminately fired more than 120 bullets down the 1500 block of South Etting Street on July 7, striking 12 people. Additional gunmen were expected to be identified and taken into custody in the coming days, he said.
Preliminary ballistics evidence suggests at least 13 guns were fired on the block that night, he said — likely all by partygoers spooked by what they thought was the sound of gunfire.
“I don’t know if I’ve ever seen contagious gunfire like this among one party,” said Vanore. “They’re just firing indiscriminately. ... You don’t even know where those bullets are going.”
Three people were killed. Zahir Wylie, 23, of Overbrook, was struck in the chest, and Jason Reese, 19, of West Philadelphia, was shot in the head. Azir Harris, 27, who used a wheelchair after being paralyzed in a prior shooting, was struck in the back.
The wounded ranged in age from 15 to 24. Among them was the mother of Harris’ 1-year-old son, shot multiple times as the couple was trapped between two parked cars as bullets were fired from behind them.
Vanore said detectives identified Frazier through video and information posted to social media, and that he was seen on surveillance footage from a nearby Ring camera shooting across the street. Police are still looking for the men whose photos officials released after they were captured on video firing guns from a rowhouse porch, he said.
The shooting erupted after at least 100 people gathered on the block for a party over the July Fourth holiday weekend — the second party on Etting Street in as many nights, Vanore said.
When police responded to noise complaints to the first party Friday night, he said, officers were outnumbered, and two people were later arrested and charged with assaulting police. Video shows that Frazier, he said, was among several people who jumped on top of an officer’s car.
Frazier returned the next night, he said, with dozens of others. Then suddenly, around 1 a.m., gunfire erupted, sending crowds running and partygoers diving behind cars and onto porches.
Initially, investigators thought the party was targeted, but Vanore said detectives, based on evidence at the scene and interviews with witnesses, no longer believe that’s the case. Instead, he said, the victims were likely all struck by bullets fired by partygoers who, after hearing what they thought was the sound of gunfire, pulled out their weapons and aimlessly started shooting.
“They’re shooting amongst themselves recklessly,” he said.
Detectives’ theory, he said, is that someone at the party shot once into the air or toward a car or person passing by. The sound then led more than a dozen people, believing they were under fire, to pull out their weapons and spray more than 120 shots indiscriminately down the block.
All of the fired cartridge casings recovered at the scene were found in the middle of the block, he said, where video at the scene shows the partygoers were firing their guns. No casings were found at the end of the block they were shooting toward, he said.
Frazier has been arrested multiple times in the last few years, court records show. In 2021, he was arrested and later pleaded guilty to theft and conspiracy charges, and was sentenced to four years probation. The following year, he was again arrested and later convicted of receiving stolen property and fleeing arrest, according to the records.
Most recently, in October, he pleaded guilty to illegal gun possession and was sentenced to 11½ to 23 months in jail plus three more years of probation, the records show. He was released on parole this spring.
Still, a few months later, and while still under court supervision, police said he again came to possess a gun — and this time, they said, he used it.