Gunfire interrupts memorial service at Montco cemetery, killing a Philadelphia man
Investigators believe a large group of people had gathered at the grave of 19-year-old Tyreek Fairel, who was fatally shot in Norristown in 2013, when shooting broke out among the group.
A memorial service for a slain man turned deadly Saturday as gunfire erupted at a Montgomery County cemetery, killing one man and leaving another seriously injured, Montgomery County authorities said.
Investigators believe a large group of people had gathered about 3 p.m. at a grave site to celebrate the birthday of 19-year-old Tyreek Fairel, who was fatally shot in Norristown in 2013 and buried at the Whitemarsh Memorial Park, on Limekiln Pike in Ambler.
Gunfire broke out within the group with more than 30 shots fired, police said, leaving one man — Daniel Elijah Hawkins, 29 — dead and injuring Arian Davis, 33. Both men are from Philadelphia.
Davis was taken to a local hospital with injuries to his jaw, hand and leg.
In a statement Sunday, Montgomery County Detectives and the Horsham Police Department said that the shooting remained under investigation and that no arrests had been made.
But Hawkins had drawn attention from authorities before.
When Fairel was shot a decade ago while riding in a car in Norristown, Hawkins was driving and was also hit, according to newspaper accounts of the convicted shooter’s trial.
At the 2014 trial of the man arrested for that slaying, Hawkins, then 19, testified that they were returning after he’d driven Fairel to Philadelphia to buy drugs and began following a white car.
As they reached Elm Street in Norristown, shots rang out, hitting Fairel in the head and Hawkins in the hand.
Hawkins would later tell the jury that he did not know why Fairel wanted him to follow the car and did not remember much about what happened.
The man arrested for that shooting, Dwayne Jubilee Jr., said he believed Fairel and Hawkins were trying to kill him. He was acquitted on charges of voluntary manslaughter but sentenced to 4½ to 6 years in prison in 2015 on counts including aggravated assault and reckless endangerment.