Jail calls, burned getaway cars, and forensics: How Philly police say they linked Aiden Waters to the killing of rapper, gang leader YBC Dul

When West Philadelphia gang leader and rapper Abdul Vicks was shot and killed last month, homicide detectives and prosecutors worked late into the night, poring over surveillance footage, interviewing witnesses, and rush-ordering ballistic and fingerprint tests.

As days grew into weeks, that evidence and more, prosecutors said Friday, led them to 16-year-old Aiden Waters, who they say killed Vicks and shot four others amid a string of separate crimes over five days in August. Waters is affiliated with an Olney-based gang known as “Fastbreak,” officials said, and now stands accused of killing two people and attempting to kill or seriously injure eight others.

The affidavit of probable cause for Waters’ arrest sheds light on how police say investigators linked him to the crimes: jail calls in which the teen discussed the shootings using basketball-themed code words, video footage of the getaway car stopping behind his home after Vicks’ killing, and, most notably, the recovery of the Glock used in all three shootings from his basement.

Here’s how police tracked Waters to the crimes, according to those records and statements from law enforcement.

The first crimes police say they linked to Waters took place nine days before Vicks was killed and began with the theft of a 2018 white Kia Sportage from an apartment building in Cheltenham Township. Police say Waters, also known as “A-Boy,” paid another teen $100 for the stolen car.

Three days later, on Aug. 17, two young men held up a couple at gunpoint outside Live Casino in South Philadelphia and fled in that same white Kia.

Just before 10 p.m. the next day, gunfire erupted at 500 Sentner St. in Olney. A 14-year-old who said he was walking home after playing basketball was shot in the leg, and a 43-year-old was grazed by a bullet in the abdomen.

Police recovered 25 fired cartridge casings at the scene — 7.62mm rounds from an assault rifle and 9mm casings from a handgun.

Around four hours later, at 2:30 a.m., a car full of teenagers was shot up on the 200 block of East Duncannon Street. Marquise Saunders, 16, was struck in the head and later died. Another 16-year-old was critically wounded.

Saunders’ family declined to comment.

Ballistics testing later showed that the 27 bullet casings police recovered on Duncannon Street were fired from the same guns used in the Sentner Street shooting, according to the affidavit.

Police recovered the getaway car used in both shootings 90 minutes later at 6530 N. 10th St. The vehicle, a stolen gray Hyundai, had been doused with bleach and set on fire — but investigators found that a phone had been hooked up to the car’s internal system, said Assistant District Attorney Cydney Pope. Data downloaded from that phone led investigators to a series of jail calls, Pope said.

Philadelphia police had been monitoring the communications and social media posts of Fastbreak members for years. The group, whose members previously referred to themselves as “Headshot Gang,” has been around since 2022 and associates with Fourth and Nedro and Spencer Streets in Olney. The gang has ongoing feuds with other cliques from nearby Logan, Lawncrest, and Frankford, according to the affidavit.

Other Fastbreak members have recently been arrested and charged with shootings, including 17-year-old Ryan Purcell, who is accused of killing 20-year-old Kristofer Dowling in February. He faces those charges alongside Ahnile Buggs, an 18-year-old who is also accused of shooting eight teens outside a bus stop near Northeast High School in March.

Detectives recovered calls Purcell and other Fastbreak members, including Waters, made in August. In one Aug. 19 call, a member of the group told Purcell he spoke of “smoking Mar Mar,” which police believe was a reference to the slaying of Saunders earlier that day. The associates used code words like “scrimmage” to mean a shooting and refer to a homicide as a “slam dunk.”

The following day, Purcell spoke with Waters, who used the same set of code words.

“There were two different scrimmages in one day,” Waters told Purcell, according to the records. “One slam dunk, and one went in and out.”

Police believe this was in reference to the shooting on Sentner Street, and the double shooting and homicide on Duncannon Street hours later.

Vicks and a friend were supposed to be heading to New York on the night of Aug. 23 — but never made it.

Vicks picked up his associate, known as “Baby 35st,” in Olney just before 3:30 p.m. that day. The two were driving down the 100 block of West Olney Avenue when, as Vicks slowed at a stop light, a white Kia Sportage pulled up alongside him. Two passengers fired multiple shots into the car. Vicks, who was also known as “YBC Dul,” was struck in the chest and hand, and died at a hospital a short time later.

Detectives later recovered the Kia at 6945 N. 15th St. The car had been doused in gasoline and set on fire, but inside, police recovered fired cartridge casings and a series of fingerprints.

» READ MORE: Defying the code of silence: How a teen helped solve four murders and convict a West Philly gang

Detectives tracked the path of the Kia after the shooting, and found that it made a stop in an alleyway on the 1700 block of 68th Avenue — behind Waters’ home — before continuing to the lot where the car was burned. Video showed a young man trying to cover his face as he ran from the car, according to the affidavit.

Police searched Waters’ home on Aug. 31 and recovered multiple firearms, according to the affidavit. In the teen’s room and on top of his bed, investigators found a black 10mm Glock with an obliterated serial number, red switch attachment, and loaded extended magazine. They also found a Rolex, an empty 9mm gun box, a gun laser attachment, and a purple Glock back plate.

In his basement, the records say, police found eight cell phones and a loaded 9mm Glock that had been reported stolen. A ballistics test showed that gun matched the fired cartridge casings found at the scene of all three shootings, officials said.

Waters later told detectives that he had found the 10mm weapon inside Fisher Park in Olney a few days earlier, according to the affidavit. He later “acknowledged” Vicks’ death, the records say, and told police the Kia arrived at the rear of his home that same day but would not say who was in the car.

Investigators are still working to identify at least two other people who they believe were involved in the deaths of Vicks and Saunders, and also played a role in the third shooting.

Waters faces two counts of murder, six counts of attempted murder, and multiple counts of aggravated assault, as well as conspiracy, arson, illegal gun possession, and related crimes. He remains in custody, held without bail. His attorneys at the Defender Association declined to comment.