A man suspected of an Overbrook murder was just arrested for attacking Upper Darby commuters

A man wanted for a September murder in Overbrook who attacked two people at SEPTA’s 69th Street Terminal last week has been charged with attempted murder, authorities said Tuesday.

Darryl Warren, 48, of Powelton, tried to shoot one of his victims at the Upper Darby transit station and used the gun as a bludgeon when the weapon failed to fire, police said. He has also been charged with aggravated assault, terroristic threats, illegal possession of a weapon, and related offenses in connection with the attacks, which took place Friday, according to police.

He remained in custody Tuesday in lieu of $1 million bail. There was no indication he had hired an attorney.

Upper Darby Police Superintendent Timothy Bernhardt said Warren’s attack on commuters was “very frustrating,” and part of an increased pattern of crime spilling into the suburb from Philadelphia.

“As a police chief, how do you tackle that?” asked Bernhardt. “We’re doing everything we can here as far as patrol being proactive in our community, but we’re being inundated with people from outside Upper Darby coming here and committing crimes.”

» READ MORE: Man shot and killed outside Upper Darby mosque during carjacking

SEPTA Transit Police officers encountered Warren just before 3 p.m. Friday at the busy travel hub, according to the affidavit of probable cause for his arrest.

Multiple people had approached the officers on patrol at the station, to report that a man was standing in a bus loop outside, threatening people with a gun.

When the officers went to investigate, they found one of the victims who had been attacked by Warren. The man told the officers he fought Warren off, and gave them a gun that he said Warren had dropped during the scuffle, the affidavit said.

The gun, a Walther P38 9mm handgun, was loaded, police said.

Not long after, the officers found Warren, who refused to comply with their commands to get on the ground, the affidavit said. After taking Warren into custody, the officers found that he was carrying what they suspected to be PCP, a powerful hallucinogenic.

» READ MORE: Retaliatory shootings at an Upper Darby cemetery have neighbors on edge and police frustrated

The officers later interviewed another victim who had been struck in the back of the head with the gun by Warren. That man told police that as he was walking toward the Route 21 bus, Warren approached him and pointed the gun at the victim’s head, the affidavit said.

Warren pulled the trigger, the man said, but the gun did not fire. Investigators said Tuesday they were awaiting the results of a ballistics analysis to determine whether the gun malfunctioned or was inoperable. It was also unclear how Warren, who is a felon, was able to obtain the gun.

After the misfire, police said, Warren used the butt of the gun to strike the man in the head before running away. Moments later, Warren attacked another man as he got off the bus and punched him in the neck, unprovoked, according to affidavit.

The second victim fought back, and grabbed the gun when it fell from Warren’s waistband, police said.

After Warren was taken into custody, police discovered that there is a warrant for his arrest in connection with a Sept. 28 murder in Overbrook. In that incident, Sedric Talley, 44, was gunned down outside of a home on Euclid Street about 2:30 a.m., according to police.

Talley’s mother, Gladys, told The Philadelphia Tribune that he had gone out to celebrate his birthday hours before the shooting, and never made it home.

“I never thought violence would touch my family,” said Talley told the Tribune, “but it happened.”