North Philadelphia man charged with four homicides, terrorizing a woman, police say

A North Philadelphia man has been charged with committing a spate of shootings this month that left four people dead and a young woman terrorized, law enforcement officials said Wednesday.

Edwin Vargas, 24, faces counts of homicide and related charges for his alleged role in a quadruple shooting in Mayfair on Jan. 9 that left three young men dead and another seriously injured. He’s also been charged with a separate homicide in Hunting Park that occurred just days earlier.

Officials said the shootings were connected and domestic in nature, and stemmed from Vargas’ obsession with a young woman he had been stalking and terrorizing over the course of multiple days.

Court records show that these incidents were not the first time Vargas had shot at someone, and that he’s spent the entirety of his adult life — and at least a portion of his childhood — in and out of jail.

Vargas’ most recent crimes, records show, began Dec. 30.

Shortly before 4 a.m., Vargas’ ex-girlfriend, who was staying at her mother’s Kensington house, received a phone call from an unknown number. She didn’t answer, then heard at least 10 gunshots outside.

About three hours later, the number called again, and six more gunshots followed. Police responded to the scene and recovered numerous shell casings. An hour after that, the woman received multiple text messages and voice memos from the number, and she recognized the voice as Vargas’.

“Yeah, I’m the one that shot your mom house up this morning, yeah, I did that … ‘cus you kept playing with me bro,” Vargas said in the voice memo, according to the records.

Then, days later, in the early morning hours of Jan. 3, police say, Vargas shot multiple times at a car on the 900 block of West Hunting Park Avenue.

Ceasar Santos, 28, was struck once in the head and died at the scene.

Investigators believe Santos was targeted because of his connection to the ex-girlfriend, said Jane Roh, spokesperson for the District Attorney’s Office.

Seven hours after killing Santos, records show, Vargas sent a chilling text to the woman.

“I hit him,” he wrote, “he dead.”

The next morning, on Jan. 4, Vargas returned to the woman’s house. He again called her repeatedly, the records show, and when she didn’t answer, he shot the house 13 more times. Police again responded to the scene, but Vargas had fled.

As law enforcement searched for him, Vargas continued committing crimes, police said.

On Jan. 9, shortly before 10 p.m., Vargas and others pulled up to the 7300 block of Rowland Avenue in Mayfair in two separate cars that had been reported stolen from Harrison Township in South Jersey earlier that day. As one group exited the car and crossed the street, police say, Vargas and two others emerged from their white van, with guns.

They shot each of the four men multiple times, police said. Three of the men — ages 18, 19, and 24 — died shortly after. A fourth man was critically wounded.

Roh said that incident was also domestic in nature, though not connected to the woman Vargas had been terrorizing.

The two other shooters in that incident remain at large, said Staff Inspector Ernest Ransom of the Homicide Unit.

For allegedly shooting up the woman’s house, Vargas was charged with illegal gun possession, stalking, and issuing terroristic threats, and is expected to face additional charges.

Records show Vargas entered the justice system as a teen, when in 2013, at just 15 years old, he was arrested for a drug crime.

In 2016, just a few months after turning 18, he was convicted of illegally possessing a gun with an obliterated serial number. He was sentenced to up to 23 months in jail, plus five years’ probation.

Then, in January 2020, Vargas was charged with aggravated assault and illegal gun possession, after video showed he shot at someone multiple times in Kensington, according to court records. No one was injured.

He was convicted in that shooting and sentenced to up to 23 months in jail, plus three years’ probation, with required mental health supervision.

Vargas was released in August 2022, under the condition that he participate in a reentry program requiring weekly meetings with a caseworker while incarcerated, and for a few months after his release.