PHILADELPHIA-
A man was charged with murder in the weekend death of a 5-year-old girl who was shot while riding in the back of a car.
Kevin Felder, 24, of Philadelphia, surrendered Tuesday night on a warrant accusing him of two nonfatal shootings, one of which happened minutes before Casha’e Rivers was shot in a neighborhood besieged by drugs and violence.
“They’re just trying to put it on somebody, that’s all,” Felder told reporters.
Casha’e died Sunday morning after being struck in the chest.
Police said Felder fired the bullet and charged him with murder and other offenses.
Police initially said the car driven by her mother, Alisha Corley, was not the intended target. But on Wednesday they said Felder was aiming at the vehicle. They would not say whom they thought Felder was targeting.
Authorities have said that Corley’s 1-year-old son, Romar Berry Jr., was in the car, along with other family members. Police said Corley’s boyfriend, Romar Berry, was arrested Tuesday on an outstanding drug warrant but would not answer any other questions about him.
Police have several people in custody on unrelated charges who are being interviewed about the case, including who was in the car with Felder, Chief Inspector Joseph Fox said.
Police alleged that Felder was riding in a car with others in the city’s Strawberry Mansion neighborhood Sunday morning and shot at three men sitting on a stoop. All three fled, and one man who was hit was treated at a hospital and released.
Minutes afterward, and about a block away, Felder fired at the car driven by Corley, authorities said. When Corley realized that Casha’e had been hit, she drove to a nearby fire station and she was taken to a hospital.
Felder was charged with shooting at the men on the stoop and another shooting last year, based in part on witness identification of the vehicle he was in, Fox said. He was being held without bail and it was unclear if he had a lawyer.
The silence of other bystanders has hindered the investigation of Casha’e’s death, District Attorney Lynne Abraham said Wednesday.
Casha’e’s mother was one of hundreds of Philadelphians who traveled to Harrisburg on Tuesday to lobby the Legislature for stricter gun laws.
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