Upper Darby man who killed his girlfriend and shot at SEPTA Police sentenced to decades in state prison

An Upper Darby man who killed his girlfriend in 2021 as she slept in their apartment and then waged a gunfight with police outside of SEPTA’s 69th Street Terminal was sentenced Friday to 32½ to 50 years in state prison.

David Savage, 47, pleaded guilty to third-degree murder for shooting LaToya Gary, 43, in the head at point-blank range. The couple had dated for five years, according to prosecutors, and the murder came at the height of a domestic argument they were having in their bedroom.

Savage also pleaded guilty Friday to two counts of assaulting a law enforcement officer and two counts of attempted murder for firing at two passersby on the street in front of his apartment on Terminal Square.

Savage, in emotional testimony before Delaware County Court Judge John Cappuzzi, said that he was “not in the right state of mind” and under the influence of drugs that morning. When he realized what he had done, he said, he attacked the police officers in an attempt to goad them into killing him.

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“I don’t want to be alive, not at all,” said Savage, who told Cappuzzi he has attempted to kill himself while awaiting trial in the county jail. “This family was so good to me, and I’m sorry, that’s the honest truth.”

Cappuzzi, in handing down his sentence, told Savage that he believed he was remorseful for what he had done. But killing himself, Cappuzzi said, would not benefit Gary nor her family.

“You’ve accepted responsibility,” the judge said. “Now it’s time for healing. Taking another life doesn’t solve this.”

After shooting Gary in the head about 4 a.m. on Dec. 2, 2021, Savage fled their second-floor apartment, ran outside and began shooting a handgun into the air, investigators said. He pointed the gun at a bystander on the street and fired, missing that man but grazing another in his neck.

Those gunshots drew the attention of two SEPTA Transit Police officers, who saw Savage outside, near the transit terminal. Savage shot at the officers as they sat in their car, and they returned fire.

Neither the officers nor Savage were injured in the gunfight, and Savage was taken into custody.

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Deputy District Attorney Stephanie Wills said this case was “unlike any other” she had seen.

“It really is a miracle, based on his actions, that we didn’t have four more murders that night,” Wills said. “We’re fortunate that he ran out of bullets when he did.”

But Gary’s family, assembled in the courtroom for the late-afternoon hearing, were explicit in describing the effect of Savage’s actions that day.

Richard Hall, Gary’s cousin, said in a statement read in court that Savage had caused his family “never-ending pain.”

“He’s a coward and should have done society a favor and ended his life,” Hall said. “We all would’ve been better for it.”