School closed after 2 fatally shot in parking lot

An ongoing domestic dispute ended in death early yesterday outside a Juniata elementary school when a man shot and killed the woman he had lived with and then took his own life.

Philadelphia homicide investigators identified the woman as Iris Reyes Mulero, 19, of the 4300 block of Glendale Street, a block from Holy Innocents Elementary School, and the man as Thomas Santiago, 27, of the 2000 block of North Fourth Street in North Philadelphia. The city Medical Examiner's Office identified him as Tomas Santiago Alvelo.

Homicide investigators said police were called at 4:10 a.m. and told about a shooting in the 1300 block of East Bristol Street, outside the school.

Investigators found a large passenger van on a parking strip along one side of the school. Mulero was in the front passenger seat, shot multiple times, investigators said. Two steps away, on the ground, was the body of Santiago, dead of a gunshot wound to the head.

Mulero was taken to Temple University Hospital and died at 4:41 a.m.

Homicide investigators said that Mulero and Santiago had a history of domestic problems and that she had moved into the house of a friend.

Mulero and her friend were in the van preparing to drive to work when Santiago walked up and began shooting, investigators said.

A spokesman for the Philadelphia Medical Examiner's Office said both bodies were awaiting autopsies.

Investigators said Mulero's friend escaped without injury and called for help. None of the three had any connection to the school or the adjoining St. Lucy School for Children With Visual Impairments. Investigators said neighbors commonly park overnight along the strip of school parking spaces.

The incident caused archdiocesan school officials to cancel classes yesterday for several hundred students who attend the schools, although a previously scheduled school trip to Clementon Park was held.

By the time students began arriving for school about 7:30 a.m., police had removed the van and the victims. The only evidence of the incident was some broken glass near where the van was parked.

Four nuns stationed around the school greeted children and told them classes were canceled.