Philly DA touts the convictions of two members of the ‘Goon Squad,’ which killed four people in just over two weeks

Prosecutors in the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office say that over 17 days in 2022, two young men, part of what has been dubbed the “Goon Squad,” killed four people across the Strawberry Mansion section of the city, including one in error, in retaliation for another homicide and over petty grievances.

Jameer Rice and Shaun Triplett, both 21, were convicted of four counts of first degree murder, conspiracy to murder, and related charges in the killings of Juan Carlos Sanchez, Iyad Muhammad, Kelvin Sori, and Sufyan Gibbs. Last week, Rice and Triplett received life sentences without the possibility of parole for the crimes they committed alone and sometimes with others.

“Thank goodness this 17-day period of terror ended when it did, and that these people are being held accountable for what they did,” said District Attorney Larry Krasner. “We used to call them the Goon Squad, now we call them the Gone Squad.”

Krasner hailed the prosecutions as a “triumph of forensics,” social media analysis, and detective work across various agencies, including the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives.

According to Assistant District Attorney Cydney Pope, who prosecuted the men, Rice and Triplett said they met while in juvenile placement. They did not go by an official name, but they rapped and made several music videos, including a song called “3 Goons,” which is how investigators conceived the moniker. In some of their music videos, they wore chains that read “H20,” a reference to another group prosecutors say drove gun violence in the city and they believed offered mentorship to Triplett and Rice.

The killings began on Feb. 23, 2022. Prosecutors believe Sanchez, 18, accompanied by Muhammad, also 18, picked up Triplett and Rice in his silver Kia Optima on the 3000 block of West Arizona Street. Pope said the men had beef over a stolen tow truck that Triplett and Rice had previously used to steal other cars.

Triplett and Rice shot the other two men in the back of the head, said Pope, and proceeded to run away as the driver of the Kia crashed into a van.

Using call records, prosecutors were able to learn that Triplett talked to Sanchez by phone two minutes before the shooting. Social media posts additionally showed Triplett wearing a dangling keychain on his pants that one of the fleeing suspects was also caught wearing in camera footage from the scene. What’s more, Pope said two of the four casings found in the car had Rice’s DNA on them.

The second murder scheme would play out on March 8 on the 1900 block of North 32nd Street. The two men aimed to retaliate for the death of a friend but Triplett and Rice would mistakenly kill Kelvin Sori, 18, who simply looked like their target.

For this murder, Triplett and Rice had an accomplice in Saleem Ralph, said prosecutors, who pleaded guilty and waived his preliminary hearing years ago. Video shows the three men, who are wearing very specific name brand clothing, run up to the 2017 red Hyundai Elantra Sori is sitting in and begin to fire. More than 30 shells were found at the scene with casings matching Triplett and Rice’s guns.

Then on March 11, Triplett and Rice joined four other men and set their sights on Gibbs, a 20-year-old Fresh Grocer employee. Pope said Gibbs had been romantically involved with a woman who had been in a relationship with one of the other men in the group. The relationship between the woman and Gibbs appeared to have taken place while one of the defendants was in placement, and he sought revenge.

In addition to killing Gibbs on the 1800 block of Ingersoll Street in North Philadelphia, the group stole his iPhone, money, and a 9mm gun he had a permit to carry. Pope said Gibbs’ gun had never been used until after the theft. It was later linked to a separate shooting where an innocent bystander was killed.

Triplett and Rice were the last two defendants prosecuted in the Gibbs case. Investigators used cell phone records to connect Gibbs’ stolen phone to one of the defendants’ homes where the group “divvied up the proceeds” of the robbery, according to Pope. Law enforcement similarly used communications between the group before and after the murder to track their collective movement.

Triplett and Rice’s guns were connected to all three crime scenes.

Krasner touted the successful prosecutions of Triplett and Rice in a regular gun violence update and a day before voters head to the polls and decide whether they want him to serve a third term as district attorney. While Krasner lamented any unnecessary deaths in the city, he said the city had recorded 139 homicides as of Monday, the lowest to date in 50 years.

He attributed the drop in homicides to the city’s multilayered approach, including investments in gun violence prevention.