Delco man charged with fatal ambush of woman killed in a West Philly gang feud she had nothing to do with, police say
Hamza Ruley, 24, was arrested Thursday for his alleged role in the killing of Imani Ringgold last month.
A Delaware County man was charged Thursday in the fatal ambush of a 20-year-old woman in West Philadelphia last month — a shooting that police say was part of an escalating gang feud she had nothing to do with.
Hamza Ruley, 24, was taken into custody at his Lansdowne home Thursday morning to face charges of murder and related crimes in the killing of Imani Ringgold near 60th and Market Streets on April 7.
» READ MORE: Imani Ringgold was accepted to college days before she was killed by bullets not meant for her
Ringgold worked as a home health aide in the area — a job her family said she had started just days earlier — and had picked up a slice of pizza on the block during her break around 6:20 p.m., police said.
She was on the phone with her grandmother and was walking past a group of young men on the sidewalk, police said, when three gunmen jumped out of a car and started shooting.
Ruley, police say, was among the shooters.
Ringgold was caught in the crossfire, police said, and after she fell to the ground, one of the gunmen stood over her and shot her multiple times before fleeing. She died at Penn Presbyterian Medical Center a short time later.
Police said that the gunmen had no reason to kill Ringgold and that she was a bystander caught in the middle of a feud between two gangs in the area. Investigators believe that the shooters were aiming for the men standing a few feet behind her — and that the gunfire was likely in retaliation for a quintuple shooting that left two men dead a few blocks away the week before, officials said.
Within days of the shooting, police identified two men who they said were involved with the crime — Zaire Manning, 21, and Mustafa King, 26, of West Philadelphia. Both are on the run, facing charges of murder, police said.
Detectives are still working to identify a fourth suspect.
Ringgold lived with her grandmother in Delaware County, and had just started working as a home health aide to save money for classes at Community College of Philadelphia that she was set to begin in the fall.
She planned to study HVAC and electrical work, her family said.
She was talking to her grandmother, her phone resting on top of the warm pizza box she was carrying, when the shooting erupted. Her grandmother heard the shots and haunting screams, and said her family will never be the same.
Ringgold’s killing comes as Philadelphia has experienced a dramatic reduction in violence. This year, 47 people have been killed in homicides, a 37% reduction from last year, when the city recorded the fewest killings in more than half a century.
At this time in 2021, amid the height of the city’s violence crisis, 192 people had been killed.
