Man sentenced to life in prison for 2024 Philly homicide
Tariq Cummings shot and killed Jerelle Bey, 32, in 2024 and was sentenced in October.
A man has been convicted of murder in relation to a fatal Philadelphia shooting two years ago, District Attorney Larry Krasner announced Tuesday at a news conference.
Tariq Cummings was convicted and sentenced in October to life in prison with no possibility of parole for first-degree murder and weapons charges over the shooting of Jerelle Bey, 32, of Windsor Avenue in Southwest Philadelphia.
Bey was shot once in the back at 3:31 a.m. on Nov. 23, 2024, on the 5600 block of Whitby Avenue in the city’s Kingsessing section. Police found Bey unresponsive and transported him to Penn Presbyterian Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead.
In announcing the conviction, Krasner said the result was thanks to an extensive six-month investigation that led investigators to Cummings.
“What do you do when you have a homicide case with no ballistic evidence, no DNA evidence, no useful information coming from license-plate readers? Barely any video, no confession — what do you do?” Krasner said. “You solve it.”
A witness, who called 911 after hearing gunshots, saw an older model burgundy Pontiac fleeing the scene as he observed from his front window, prosecutors said.
“That information was crucial in ultimately identifying the defendant,” said Assistant District Attorney Katie Wood, who prosecuted the case.
But a breakthrough came when, while on scene, investigators found a pill bottle with Cummings’ name on it with the same address as where the shooting took place, Wood said.
“A fact that on its own didn’t mean a whole lot,” Krasner said.
Detectives obtained search warrants for cell towers in the area to screen for recurring numbers, and determined Cummings was in the area at the time of the shooting. They confirmed that Cummings owned a 2008 Pontiac G6, similar to the vehicle fleeing the scene observed by a witness, within a year of the shooting.
Detectives also uncovered text messages between Cummings and Bey in the early morning of Nov. 23, 2024, immediately before the fatal shooting.
Cummings was arrested on May 15, 2025, and told investigators at the time he had no involvement in the shooting. He said he didn’t know Bey and hadn’t owned a Pontiac G6, Wood said, even though he was the registered owner and footage showed he previously operated the vehicle. “This case was extremely challenging,” Wood said.
“My son was a superstar,” said a written statement from Bey’s mother, read at Tuesday’s news conference. “He didn’t deserve to be murdered. Justice is served now.”
The announcement comes at a time when Philadelphia has seen month-over-month declines in homicides for the last five years, Krasner said. In 2021, the city recorded 562 homicides, the deadliest year in Philly’s history.
There have been 157 homicides in the city this year to date, an 18% decrease from the same time last year.
