Suspect arrested in fatal shooting of man in downtown Phoenixville
Police are looking for Keyon La-Shawn Carpenter, 21, in the slaying of Joshua Mitchell, 20.
Authorities on Friday afternoon arrested the man suspected in the fatal shooting of a 20-year-old man in Phoenixville.
Keyon La-Shawn Carpenter, 21, who is suspected of killing Joshua Mitchell Thursday night in downtown Phoenixville following an argument, was taken into custody by Philadelphia police and a U.S. Marshal team, Phoenixville police said. Carpenter was being held at Philadelphia police headquarters at Eighth and Race Streets.
Phoenixville police said they were called Thursday to the Children's Plaza off Bridge Street about 9:45 p.m. for a report of shots fired and found Mitchell suffering from a bullet wound to the upper body. Mitchell was taken to Phoenixville Hospital, where he died.
Multiple witnesses identified Carpenter as the shooter, police said.
They told investigators the men were arguing when Carpenter pulled a gun and fired at Mitchell. Mitchell ran away but Carpenter followed and shot the victim after a short chase, police said.
Police found a handgun nearby. They said the weapon had been previously reported stolen and that there was an attempt to obliterate its serial number.
Carpenter was arrested in Phoenixville last October on charges of aggravated assault, simple assault, conspiracy, and other offenses. After pleading guilty to simple assault and one count of conspiracy, he was sentenced in March to at least 121 days in prison followed by a year of probation.
In June 2016, he was charged with burglary, criminal trespassing, and related offenses in Pottstown. In January 2017, he pleaded guilty to burglary and was sentenced to at least six months in prison.
In Phoenixville, he had also been charged in May 2016 with nighttime loitering, a charge that was later withdrawn, and in 2015 pleaded guilty to receiving stolen property. In that case, he was sentenced to at least five months in prison.