Man arrested for fatally stabbing his 83-year-old neighbor in North Philly

An 83-year-old woman was shot with a BB gun and fatally stabbed Wednesday night in front of her North Philadelphia rowhouse. Her next door neighbor was arrested in connection with the stabbing.

Police responded to a call about a neighborhood disturbance on the 2900 block of North 27th Street around 8:15 p.m., where officers found Delores Robinson on her front porch with a stab wound to her neck and lacerations to her face, said Staff Inspector Ernest Ransom, the commanding officer of the Philadelphia Police Department’s homicide unit. She was pronounced dead at the scene.

Robinson was an “outstanding individual” according to her neighbors, said Ransom, who called the incident “tragic.” Records indicate that Robinson had lived in her home on the block since at least 1975, when she purchased the rowhouse.

Officers arrested Isiaih Rahatt, 47, on a murder charge. Rahatt lived next door to Robinson, Ransom said.

Police believe that Rahatt followed Robinson into her home, Ransom said, where the two struggled before returning to the porch. There, Rahatt stabbed Robinson in the neck and shot her with a BB gun, Ransom said.

“When she was ultimately transported down to the Medical Examiner’s office, we discovered that there were BB gun pellets lodged in her head and hands,” Ransom said.

Ransom said that while “there is no indication” that Rahatt and Robinson had a connection beyond being neighbors, officers believe there were “ongoing issues” between Rahatt and the entire block.

Rahatt had 15 prior arrests, Ransom said, including three for aggravated assault. He was last arrested in 2022, court records show.

Court records indicate that Rahatt had arrests dating back to 1997 on charges ranging from carrying an unlicensed firearm and reckless endangerment to false imprisonment and terroristic threats. Some of those charges were dismissed, while others resulted in convictions. The outcome of some cases could not be immediately determined.