Three men are facing charges after a series of recent hit-and-run crashes left two older women dead and a man seriously injured.
Since Friday, there have been at least three unrelated collisions involving pedestrians and drivers who left the scene; although two of the men did not get very far, according to authorities.
The spate of traffic violence began at around 5:20 p.m. Friday at 54th Street and Lancaster Avenue in Overbrook, police said. Dorothea Cathell, 77, was struck and killed as she reportedly walked home from a store.
Law enforcement officials believe the driver reversed down Lancaster Avenue, fled south, and dropped off a woman at a pizza shop near 56th Street and Girard Avenue.
Investigators released images Monday morning of a black Infiniti with a smashed windshield and a temporary, paper Delaware license plate in an effort to generate tips. Later that day, detectives located the car, and 47-year-old Michael Harper turned himself in.
Harper has been charged with homicide by vehicle, driving under the influence and causing a crash while unlicensed, among other offenses, according to court records. His legal counsel could not be identified Tuesday.
“She meant a lot to everybody,” Cathell’s sister, Mary Miles, told 6abc. “To the world, she was just a person, but to her family, she was the world.”
About two hours after Cathell was fatally struck, at around 7:30 p.m. Friday, a man behind the wheel of a Dodge Ram allegedly hit 72-year-old Xiujin Zhao in Mayfair, according to the PPD.
Police said Zhao was crossing the 3500 block of Ryan Avenue at the time of the crash. Medics took her to Jefferson Torresdale Hospital, where she died Saturday morning, law enforcement said.
Officers found a truck believed to have been involved in the incident about a mile-and-a-half away, near the corner of Walker and Levick streets. The PPD said Caesar Colon, 53, “showed signs of intoxication” and was arrested on the spot.
Colon has been charged with homicide by vehicle while driving under the influence, involuntary manslaughter and other crimes. An attorney for him was not listed in case documents. Colon has two prior DUI convictions, most recently in 2018.
On Monday, at around 6 p.m., a driver of a Ford truck struck a 37-year-old man as he was walking on the 1900 block of E. Somerset Street in Kensington, investigators said. The pedestrian was rushed to Temple University Hospital in critical condition.
A short time later, officers stopped a truck on the 3500 block of G Street and apprehended 30-year-old Naeem S. Toler.
Prosecutors charged him with aggravated assault, driving with a suspended or revoked license and related crimes, court documents show. The Defender Association, which is representing Toler, did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday.
