How police closed in on two of the Five Points shooting suspects

Surveillance video. Home searches. A recorded prison call.

These are the ways police zeroed in on the men they say were involved in shooting eight students at a bus stop in Northeast Philadelphia last Wednesday, records show. Police made their first arrest two days later, not long after standing in the rain and vowing to use “every legal and constitutional tool” available to find those responsible.

Law enforcement officials on Monday announced the arrests of Jamaal Tucker and Ahnile Buggs, both 18.

Buggs and Tucker were each charged with one count of attempted murder, conspiracy, and illegal gun possession, in addition to seven counts of aggravated assault and related crimes. Authorities made a third arrest Tuesday, 19-year-old Jermahd Carter.

Law enforcement officials have not disclosed some details of the investigation, including motive, while they work to arrest a fourth person involved in the crime. Still, court filings and public statements lay out how investigators closed in on their suspects.

Around 3 p.m., police received reports of multiple people shot at the intersection of Rising Sun and Cottman Avenues, an area known as “Five Points,” where kids transfer buses to get home from school.

Officers found several Northeast High School students, all ages 15 to 17, on the sidewalk and in the street, bleeding heavily. Eight teens were rushed to Frankford-Torresdale, Jeanes, and Einstein hospitals.

Detectives recovered surveillance video shortly after that showed a blue Hyundai in the parking lot of the Dunkin’ Donuts, next to the bus stop. Video showed that three young men, dressed in black, jumped out of the car and started shooting at kids on the corner, while the driver stayed behind. After firing more than 30 shots, they fled in the blue car.

Police recovered the Hyundai in an alleyway between the 400 blocks of Fern Street and Roselyn Street around 10:30 p.m. They towed the car for further investigation.

While the crime scene unit collected DNA evidence from the vehicle, police returned to the 400 block of Fern Street to collect footage. One video showed the car arriving at the alleyway at 3:11 p.m. Wednesday and four men dressed in identical black clothing were identified as suspects in the shooting, according to the affidavits of probable cause for the eventual arrests of Tucker and Buggs. The suspects then entered a home on the block that police were later able to identify using video.

Jamaal Tucker was identified as a suspect.

Investigators executed an early morning search warrant at the home on the 400 block of Fern Street, where they found a Polymer 80 Jig, used to assemble firearm kits of the same brand, as well as mail addressed to Jamaal Tucker, Jr. Police also searched Tucker’s most-recent address, where they recovered 30 rounds of .45 caliber ammunition.

Tucker turned himself in later that night.

Authorities reviewed a prison call made by Dontaz McMillian, who is incarcerated at State Correctional Institution Pine Grove, to the number connected to Buggs. McMillian called the man on the other line nephew, who in turn called him “unc.”

“I heard about your man, you good?” McMillian asked during the call, and the person on the line responded, “Nah.”

“Yeah it’s never easy to digest,” McMillian said.

Authorities said “based on the context of this phone call” they believe the pair were discussing a homicide that had taken place on the 6200 block of Ogontz Avenue.

That shooting took place 3:45 p.m. on March 4 as students from Imhotep Charter School made their way home. Police said two young masked men in hoodies shot at a group of students boarding a SEPTA bus. Dayemen Taylor, a 17-year-old student at the school, was struck multiple times, and died minutes later, according to police. Two other Imhotep students were injured in the shooting, as were two women on the bus, ages 50 and 71.

To date, Philadelphia police have not ruled out a possible connection between the two shootings, though they’ve declined to offer details about a possible motive.

Philadelphia police and U.S. Marshals took Buggs into custody without incident.

Authorities searched Buggs’ home where 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.

Deputy Police Commissioner Frank Vanore said a preliminary ballistics examination indicated that the gun matched the shell casings recovered at the scene of Wednesday’s shooting.

In a news conference announcing the arrests of Tucker and Buggs, police made clear that their investigation was continuing.

“Anyone who may have aided and assisted them, we’re coming for them, too,” said Vanore.

A third person, Carter, was taken into custody Tuesday. A spokesperson for the U.S. Marshals Service announced Carter’s apprehension and issued a warning to a fourth suspect to turn himself in by Wednesday morning.

Staff writer Robert Moran contributed to this article.