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Arrest made in '99 W. Philly murder

Fifteen years after Warner Freeman was gunned down, police say they've arrested the man who pulled the trigger.

Tariq Rashid, 41, was charged yesterday with murder and related offenses in Freeman's death, a police spokeswoman said.

Police found Freeman, 21, at Lankenau Medical Center on the night of June 13, 1999. Medical staff told the responding officers that an unidentified person had dropped the West Philly resident off at the hospital before speeding away, the spokeswoman said.

Freeman, of Master Street near 58th, had been shot several times and died at Lankenau.

Investigators later determined that Freeman had been shot inside a parked car on Redfield Street near Thompson during a dispute. And after years of probing the murder, they recently issued a warrant for Rashid's arrest.

Detectives picked up Rashid early yesterday at his home on 53rd Street near Race, the spokeswoman said.

He's being held without bail.

This is far from Rashid's first brush with the law. He has been arrested several times on drug charges, and pleaded guilty to those offenses in three cases (in 1994, 1995 and 2004) according to court records.