Third person arrested in shooting of students at Northeast bus stop

A third person has been arrested in connection with the shooting of eight teenagers in Northeast Philadelphia last week, police said.

A 19-year-old was taken into custody Tuesday afternoon and is expected to be charged for his role in the shooting at Rising Sun and Cottman Avenues last Wednesday, said department spokesperson Sgt. Eric Gripp.

On Tuesday night, a spokesperson for the U.S. Marshals Service announced the apprehension of the third suspect and issued a warning to a fourth suspect to turn himself in by Wednesday morning.

Jermahd Carter was arrested around 3:30 p.m. on the 12000 block of Academy Road in Northeast Philadelphia, said Robert Clark, Supervisory Deputy U.S. Marshal with the Eastern Pennsylvania Violent Crime Fugitive Task Force.

Carter appeared “relatively surprised” when he was found, but he did not resist arrest, Clark said.

The fugitive task force also contacted the family of a 17-year-old fourth suspect and told them that he had until the morning to surrender to Philadelphia police, or else his name and photo would be made public and a reward announced for his capture, Clark said.

“We gave them the ultimatum: turn your son in by tomorrow morning,” Clark said, adding that the family was “somewhat cooperative.”

The arrest comes the day after law enforcement announced that two 18-year-olds, Jamaal Tucker and Ahnile Buggs, had been charged with attempted murder, aggravated assault, and related crimes for their roles in the shooting. A fourth person who police say was involved remains at large.

The shooting unfolded the afternoon of March 6, shortly after Northeast High School dismissed students for the day, at an intersection known as “Five Points,” where hundreds of teens often transfer buses to and from school.

Just before 3 p.m., as kids waited for the bus, three young men wearing masks jumped out of a blue Hyundai Sonata, parked in the nearby Dunkin’ Donuts lot. Armed with handguns, they fired more than 30 times into the crowd. Eight Northeast High students, ages 15 to 17, were struck.

One 16-year-old was shot nine times. Days later, many remain hospitalized, police said.

Police recovered the shooters’ getaway car later that night on the 400 block of Fern Street in Olney, and investigators processed it for evidence.

Detectives also recovered surveillance video from Fern Street showing the four males getting out of the Hyundai and eventually going into a house on the block, according to the affidavits of probable cause for the arrests. Tucker was then identified as a suspect.

Police searched Tucker’s home Friday afternoon, police said, and he turned himself in to face charges that evening.

Buggs was arrested Saturday, police said. When authorities searched his Olney home, police said they recovered a .40-caliber Glock 22 pistol with an extended magazine, laser pointer, and a “switch,” a small device that attaches to a semiautomatic gun and makes it capable of fully automatic fire. A preliminary ballistics examination suggested that the gun matched ballistic evidence recovered at the scene Wednesday, police said.