Family offers $5,000 reward for info on son's murder

It's a mystery, and a painful one for Matthew Novak's family.

About 6:55 p.m. Sept. 28, 2008, after attending Puerto Rican Day Parade festivities in Philadelphia, Novak, 24, flagged down a dark Chevy Impala on 6th Street near Spring Garden after his friend's car broke down.

He got into the Impala, believed to have three men inside, after telling his two friends that he was going to get jumper cables.

About five minutes later, the Impala stopped on Fairmount Avenue near 13th.

Then, Novak, of Mullica Hill, N.J., was either pushed out of the car or got out on his own. And - boom! - one of the car's occupants shot him in the hip. A bleeding Novak ran north on 13th Street, where he collapsed.

A few hours later, at 9:45 p.m., he was pronounced dead at Hahnemann University Hospital.

Novak's grieving family is yearning to find out: Who Killed Matt Novak?

About a month ago, Novak's father, also named Matt, put up a $5,000 reward with the Citizens Crime Commission for information leading to the arrest and conviction of his son's killers.

Street-surveillance videos caught images that evening of the Impala, believed to be dark blue or black, with New Jersey tags and tinted windows, on 6th Street, just north of Spring Garden. One video can be viewed at www.youtube.com/user/Who KilledMattNovak.

"I know we have to make a strong play for that car," Novak, the father, said yesterday. "Who has it? Who's driving it? Somebody knows something out there. That's the key thing at this point."

It's not clear if the younger Novak knew the men in the Impala; if he flagged the car down because it had Jersey tags and he was from Jersey; or if he didn't know the men and just thought they wanted to help him and his friends.

After the Impala stopped, Novak went to speak with the men inside. He then returned and told his two friends, , "I'm going to get jumper cables," before he hopped into the Impala, the father said.

Homicide Detective Brian Peters, now the assigned detective on the case, happened to be passing by the area of 13th and Fairmount that evening when he saw a bleeding Novak and rushed to him. Novak told him about how he and his two friends had come to Philly for the Puerto Rican Day Parade festivities, then how his friend's car had broken down.

Novak said the men inside the car were African-American, and described the car as a black Impala with Jersey tags, Peters said. Novak did not say whether he knew the men in the car before he was rushed to Hahnemann.

Gloucester Township police Detective Chuck Dougherty is the younger Novak's cousin. He set up a MySpace page about the case (Search: whokilledmattnovak) and posted the video of the Impala on YouTube.

He said family members called the elder Novak "Big Matt" and his son "Little Matt."

Big Matt said yesterday that it was about 8 that night, as he was watching an Eagles game on TV, that he got a phone call from Philadelphia police telling him his son had been shot.

At Hahnemann, he and his wife didn't get a chance to speak with him. The night was a blur. Doctors worked furiously.

Then, a surgery chief told them: "We did everything we could. We couldn't stop the bleeding," the father recalled.

"My wife and I just looked at him, shocked," the father said, adding that his son's two friends, who were also at the hospital, "were basket cases. They just broke down crying."

Anyone with info about the incident can call homicide detectives at 215-686-3334.

Tipsters can also call the Crime Commission and remain anonymous: 215-546-8477 or e-mail tipline@crimecommission.org.