Man who killed 16-year-old at SEPTA’s City Hall station sentenced to 17 to 45 years in prison
Quadir Humphrey had pleaded guilty to third-degree murder in the January 2024 shooting death of Tyshaun Welles.
The Philadelphia man who shot and killed 16-year-old Tyshaun Welles on a crowded SEPTA subway platform last year has been sentenced to 17 to 45 years in prison.
In January, Quadir Humphrey, 19, pleaded guilty to third-degree murder, aggravated assault, and related crimes for Welles’ death, court records show. He was sentenced to prison by Common Pleas Court Judge J. Scott O’Keefe on Friday.
Welles’ mother, Racquel Clark, could not immediately be reached for comment. The Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office declined to comment.
The Defender Association of Philadelphia, which represented Humphrey, could not immediately be reached.
Humphrey’s sentencing comes more than a year after Welles, who authorities believe was a bystander and not the target of the shooting, was killed on the subway platform of the City Hall SEPTA station.
On Jan. 11, 2024, Welles, who had spent the evening with friends at LevelUp, a neighborhood organization in West Philadelphia, was standing on the subway platform waiting for a train.
As Welles and a group of teens talked on the platform, Humphrey opened fire into the crowd of young people as the train arrived, and one of the bullets struck Welles in the head.
Detectives said the bullet may have ricocheted off a wall.
Transit police took Welles to Thomas Jefferson University Hospital. After several days in the hospital, doctors determined that Welles was brain-dead and his family decided to take him off life support. He died Jan. 16, 2024.
Surveillance footage from different camera angles shown at a preliminary hearing for Humphrey showed the moments before the gunfire began.
The crowd of more than 20 teens was seen gathered on the westbound platform seconds before a gun was fired, causing the group to scatter. After the crowd cleared, Welles could be seen lying motionless on the subway platform.
Amid the chaos of the shooting, transit police briefly detained Humphrey after questioning him in the subway concourse, prosecutors said. Just moments later, surveillance footage helped officers identify Humphrey as the shooter nearly in real time, and he was taken back into custody, according to prosecutors.
Another teen, a 16-year-old, was arrested with Humphrey at the time for Welles’ shooting. Prosecutors later withdrew all charges against the teen after surveillance footage showed that he was not involved and that Humphrey acted alone.