Bristol Township man convicted of murder in gang shooting that targeted the wrong person
Shaquille Love, 21, was killed in December 2020, caught in the crossfire of what Bucks County prosecutors said was a simmering feud between two rival street gangs.
A Bristol Township man was convicted of third-degree murder Monday for his role in a 2020 shooting that prosecutors said had erupted over simmering street gang tensions.
Kelvontae Perry, 30, was also found guilty of aggravated assault, firearms offenses, and related crimes for driving the car that included a passenger who killed Shaquille Love in a case of mistaken identity. Perry was found not guilty of conspiracy to commit murder.
Love, 21, was shot once in the head on Dec. 23, 2020, as he sat behind the wheel of his stopped car on Edgely Road, according to evidence presented at trial. He pulled over to let a gold Lexus sedan that was tailing his vehiclepass.
A gunman in the Lexus’ passenger seat fired once as the car slowly rolled by. Love was pronounced dead at the scene.
Investigators believe that the fatal shot was intended for Andre Bryant, one of Love’s close friends, who was sitting in a passenger seat.
During Perry’s three-day bench trial last week before Bucks County Court Judge Wallace H. Bateman Jr., Deputy District Attorney Kristin McElroy said Perry had been “stalking” Love’s car, following it as Love drove through Bristol Township.
McElroy said a generational feud between gangs in the township’s Winder Village and Bloomsdale sections served as the backdrop for the killing, with Perry on one side and Bryant on the other.
But, she stressed, Love was not part of either gang. His family had left Philadelphia in 2008 to avoid the type of street violence that ultimately killed him.
Love, McElroy said, was a “good kid who didn’t roam the streets.” He was doing a favor for Bryant by driving him to his girlfriend’s house and “paid the ultimate price.”
“We believe justice was served with this verdict for the Love family,” McElroy said Monday. “He was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
Love’s attorney, Keith Williams, disputed prosecutors’ theory of the case, saying the background about the gang feud was a “smokescreen” meant to hide the lack of direct evidence against his client.
“It was a difficult case, and I think the judge clearly listened to the evidence we had,” Williams said after the verdict was announced Monday. “My client was nothing more than the driver, and there was no evidence he shot anybody.”
Perry was charged in the case alongside Quaashad James, who is awaiting trial on perjury and false swearing for lying to a grand jury investigating Love’s murder. James, 29, is serving 20 to 40 years in state prison after being convicted of attempted murder and aggravated assault for a shooting in Philadelphia that took place seven days before Love was killed.
Prosecutors believe that Love’s killing was carried out in retaliation for an incident in which Bryant, who is from Winder Village, urinated on a memorial to victims from an earlier gang-related killing.
In May 2018, Zyisean McDuffie and Tommy Ballard, two 19-year-old Bloomsdale residents, were killed by Joey Williams, 24, of Winder Village.
Williams was found guilty of two counts of first-degree murder and is serving two consecutive life sentences in state prison. His codefendant, Gary Goddard, 54, was convicted of attempted murder for shooting a teen who survived.
Perry will be sentenced sometime in the next 90 days, according to Bateman.