Cops seek person who fatally shot Mayfair mother, 25, in her home

Police were searching Friday for the person who fatally shot a 25-year-old mother in her Mayfair home.

Lexus Jawanda Brice was found unresponsive in her second-floor front bedroom on the 4100 block of Levick Street shortly before 7 p.m. Thursday with a gunshot wound to her neck, and was pronounced dead shortly afterward. Authorities believe she had been dead about eight hours, Homicide Capt. Jason Smith said Friday at Police Headquarters.

Brice was the registered owner of two 9mm handguns, “which are currently unaccounted for,” Smith said. She was shot once in the neck, and a fired 9mm cartridge casing was found in her bedroom, he said.

A back door to the basement had been forced open, Smith said. He said he did not know the motive for the shooting.

Brice worked as a home health-care worker and as a bus driver for the Cheltenham School District, he said. She was a foster mother of three children, ages 3 months and 6 and 13 years old, who were returned to the care of the city’s Department of Human Services, Smith said.

Police previously said Brice was also the biological mother of two children, but Smith said he could not confirm that.

Police had gone to the home after Brice’s family contacted them. The children were not inside at the time, Smith said.

Detectives are reviewing video from the area, he said. Tipsters can contact the police tip line at 215-686-TIPS (8477) or the homicide unit at 215-686-3334.