The accused gunman in the Kingsessing mass shooting has been found incompetent to stand trial, pausing his criminal case

The man accused of killing five people during a multi-day shooting rampage in Kingsessing earlier this summer has been ordered to receive inpatient mental health treatment before his court case can proceed.

A court-appointed psychiatrist found Kimbrady Carriker incompetent to stand trial, his public defender said in court Tuesday. Carriker, 40, will be sent to a state-run psychiatric facility to receive treatment while his criminal case — which is awaiting a preliminary hearing — is put on indefinite hold.

Carriker is accused of fatally shooting five people and wounding several others during a shooting spree in early July around 56th Street and Chester and Springfield Avenues. He faces a host of charges, including first-degree murder, attempted murder, aggravated assault, and illegal gun possession, and is being held without bail.

Investigators initially believed that Carriker shot each victim the night of July 3, which would have made this the deadliest single act of gun violence in Philadelphia in decades. In an unusual twist, they later came to believe that Carriker had actually shot one of his victims — Joseph Wamah, 31 — just after midnight on July 2, then returned to the area 44 hours later to begin firing his assault-style rifle in a seemingly indiscriminate manner on the street.

Authorities said their initial, inaccurate account was due to issues including a bungled 911 response after Wamah was shot, as well as a lack of communication between law enforcement and the Medical Examiner’s Office in the days after the July 3 shooting spree.

A number of aspects of the case remained unclear Tuesday, including a potential motive, and no new details were revealed during the hearing before Municipal Court Judge Wendy L. Pew. Lawyers did not provide specifics on Carriker’s mental health assessment, and he was not present for the proceeding.

After Carriker was arrested near the scene the night of July 3, he told responding officers and detectives that he was trying to help address the city’s gun violence crisis, and that God would be sending more people to help him, sources have told The Inquirer. He then declined to answer additional questions, sources said.

Still, it was not clear how or whether Carriker knew Wamah — the only person he is accused of shooting July 2 — and authorities are not sure why Carriker returned to the area later, firing shots while walking the streets in body armor and a ski mask.

Those killed on July 3 were identified by police as Da’Juan Brown, 15; Lashyd Merritt, 21; Ralph Moralis, 59; and Dymir Stanton, 29. In addition, Octavia Brown, 33, and her twin 2-year-old sons, Jy-Fir and By-Kir, were wounded by bullets or broken glass when Carriker fired at Brown’s vehicle, police said.

Authorities now believe Carriker went to the 1600 block of 56th Street shortly after midnight on July 2 and fired rifle shots into Wamah’s home, killing him. About 90 minutes later, a neighbor called 911, but police said officers were sent to the wrong address, and when a dispatcher called the woman back to seek more details, she hung up.

There were no additional 911 calls regarding Wamah’s death over the next two days, police said, even though bullet holes were visible in his front door. His remains lay undiscovered in his house until July 3.

About 8:30 p.m. that night, authorities said, Carriker returned to the area with the same rifle and began firing indiscriminately at people and cars.

As officers were investigating the multi-block crime scene that night, Wamah’s father, who had been away, discovered his son’s body in the house that the two shared. Police assumed the younger Wamah had been killed during the nearby rampage that night, in part because the fired cartridge casings around his house matched the casings found elsewhere.

Still, by the next day, the Medical Examiner’s Office had concluded that Wamah had been killed at least 30 hours before the others. But the office did not inform law enforcement officials of that finding for several days, even though it contradicted the account that officials had been giving the public.

It wasn’t until July 8 that law enforcement learned of the conflicting autopsy details. And as they continued reexamining the timeline, they discovered the mishandled 911 call from July 2, in which officers were mistakenly dispatched to the 1600 block of North 56th Street, about three miles away from Wamah’s house on South 56th Street.

Carriker is due back in court in late October for a status update. His criminal case will not proceed until he is deemed competent to stand trial.