Philly police arrest two suspected murderers, search for another

Philadelphia police said Thursday they solved three homicides and arrested two of the suspected killers.

Officers made arrests in the death of a rec center worker who was killed in West Philadelphia in 2022 and the shooting of a teenage girl who was killed during an attempted robbery in Southwest Philadelphia last month, Deputy Police Commissioner Frank Vanore said at a Thursday afternoon news conference.

He also said police had identified and were searching for the killer of a woman who was fatally stabbed over the weekend and whose body was found wrapped in a futon in Frankford.

After an investigation sparked by a missing-person report, police narrowed in on Gerelys Sanchez-Reyes, 28, as the person they say fatally stabbed Yuleisy Carolina Tórreles Martinez, 21, before wrapping her body in a sheet and shower curtain and stuffing it inside a futon in a home in the city’s Frankford section, Vanore said.

A group of Martinez’s friends had grown concerned after she went missing for several days, and they filed a missing-person report. When investigators searched her apartment on the 4400 block of Frankford Avenue on Saturday, Vanore said, they During the search, officers found Martinez’s body with multiple stab wounds in the neck and torso. No weapons were recovered from the scene.

Investigators scoured video footage and conducted multiple interviews before identifying Sanchez-Reyes as the suspected killer, Vanore said.

Police did not release a motive for the slaying, but said the two women were acquaintances. Police asked that anyone with information on her whereabouts call the police department’s Homicide Unit at 215-686-3334 or submit tips anonymously through the department’s tip line at 215-686-8477.

Police arrested the man they say fatally shot a 17-year-old last month in Southwest Philadelphia.

Late on March 28, Jada Gray, 17, was found with a gunshot wound to the chest on the 7000 block of Elmwood Avenue, the victim of an apparent robbery. She was pronounced dead at the scene, Vanore said.

Kani Hunt, 19, of the 1300 block of North 10th Street, was arrested Wednesday and charged with murder and related crimes for Gray’s death, police said.

Law enforcement sources have said investigators believe Gray was meeting someone to buy a gun in the alleyway when the seller decided to try to rob her of cash and then shot her.

Police suspect Gray had been selling weed in the area because her backpack, which was recovered at the scene, had marijuana inside, along with a scale, the sources said.

Investigators found video of the shooting and of Gray meeting with Hunt, who was wearing dark clothing, and from that, Vanore said, they were able to identify him. They later searched Hunt’s house, and found the weapon that killed Gray, he said.

Police also made an arrest in the 2022 shooting of a West Philadelphia rec center worker, Vanore said.

Tevin Kee, 19, was wanted in the fatal shooting of Tiffany Fletcher, 42, at the Mill Creek Recreation Center and was pulled over by police in a traffic stop in Lower Pottsgrove Township early Thursday morning, Vanore said.

Kee is the last of three shooters who police say unleashed a hail of bullets in a shootout at the rec center after an argument among teens, he said. Fletcher, who worked as a pool maintenance employee, was struck by a stray bullet, police said.

Makie Jones, who was arrested the day of the shooting, pleaded guilty to third-degree murder and related crimes and was sentenced to 10 to 20 years in prison last year, said Dustin Slaughter, a spokesperson for the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office.

Malik Flegler, who was arrested weeks after Jones, was convicted of third-degree murder and related crimes and was sentenced to 12½ to 25 years in prison last year, he said.

Police also announced that Anthony Smith, 23, the man they say shot an 18-year-old in the chest at an East Germantown recreation center, leaving him in critical condition, turned himself in to police Thursday morning.

Smith shot the teen twice in the chest outside the Lonnie Young Recreation Center on the 1100 block of East Chelten Avenue, after a fight between women at the center grew and escalated in violence, police said.

He faces charges of aggravated assault and related crimes, police said.