Woman slain in front of her daughter
Her married lover then killed himself outside her house in West Oak Lane, Philadelphia police said.
Aleen Ali never said a word. He walked to the car carrying his lover and shot her dead - right in front of her 11-year-old daughter.
As the girl's screams pierced their West Oak Lane neighborhood yesterday morning, Ali killed himself with the same handgun.
Police said that Ali, 45, a social-services supervisor at the city's Department of Human Services, ended his affair with Angela Jefferys, 34, a clerk at the Criminal Justice Center, outside her home in the 1900 block of Sterling Street.
The shooting stunned not only the neighborhood, but the city's social-services community as well. Ali's wife works as an administrator at DHS.
Ali and his wife have an 18-month-old child; Jefferys - known affectionately in her neighborhood as "Angel" - had three children.
"All the public employees in the city of Philadelphia are deeply saddened at this tragedy," Mayor Nutter said during an afternoon news conference. "What we're trying to do at the moment is to stay focused on offering our prayers and our heartfelt sympathy for all of these families that have been affected."
Police said they were sorting through information about the relationships among the three city workers and trying to determine what led to the shooting.
Ali had worked for DHS since 1993. His wife, whose name was not released, had just been promoted at the agency to director of performance management, Nutter said.
Jefferys worked for DHS from 2001 until 2006, when she left to work for the Clerk of Quarter Sessions Court. Authorities said they did not know why she left.
Neighbors described Jefferys as a hardworking single mother to the 11-year-old and two older children, one in high school and another in college.
"This is terrible, senseless," said Barbara Moreland, 58, one of Jefferys' neighbors. "Angel was happy, friendly, and very pretty, with beautiful hair and a beautiful personality."
She said Jefferys was a dedicated mother as well.
"Angel was a good girl who raised all three of her children to be good kids, church kids," she said. "You never saw any of them in trouble."
Neighbor Deann Bottoms, 37, said she heard the gunfire.
"That's what made me come running," she said. "I heard the screaming. You heard the the little girl screaming. She saw everything."
Police said Jefferys had been seeing Ali for some time, and it was unclear whether they had recently broken up. Police were called to Jefferys' home, where she lived with her mother and children, last week but no arrests were made.
Lt. Frank Vanore, a police spokesman, said he did not have details about that incident. Police said Jefferys had not sought a protection order against Ali.
Still dressed in her tan-and-blue school uniform, Jefferys' daughter was taken to Police Headquarters at Eighth and Race Streets in Center City, where she told authorities Ali did not say a word before he started firing.
Police said Ali had apparently been lying in wait for Jefferys as she started to drive her daughter to school. They said he blocked her maroon Chevrolet Impala with his black Volvo, walked up to the driver's side of her car, and started firing as Jefferys tried to get out the passenger-side door.
As she lay motionless, he pumped one bullet into his head, collapsing next to the Impala.
Investigators recovered eight shell casings.
