Authorities on Monday identified a man they believe was behind the wheel of a car that struck a man and three children who were crossing a street last month in West Philadelphia.
Police said an arrest warrant has been issued for 53-year-old Andre Shuford, who allegedly stole the car after being hired as a day laborer by the vehicle’s owner.
Divinity McFarland, the 5-year-old injured in the crash, remains hospitalized. She suffered a severe brain injury and recently opened her eyes for the first time, her aunt, Elsie Johnson, said.
“We just don’t know,” Johnson told Metro about Divinity’s prognosis. “We have to wait, is what we’ve been told.”
Shaheed Richburg, 43, who was picking up the children from daycare, was run over and is in the process of being discharged from a rehabilitation center, Johnson said. He will need intense physical therapy to relearn how to walk, she added.
The other children involved in the crash, a 3-year-old girl and a 1-year-old boy, suffered less severe injuries, though Johnson said the girl has been mentally and emotionally affected by her older sister’s lengthy hospitalization.
The crash occurred just before noon on Friday, Sept. 2, at 56th and Vine streets.
Investigators say Shuford was picked up along with another day worker near 18th and Ontario streets in North Philadelphia. The driver took the vehicle to an auto repair shop on the 5600 block of Vine Street, and Shuford fell asleep in the back, police said.
Shuford woke up and allegedly stole the car, driving over the sidewalk and into the street, according to authorities.
Police said he abandoned the vehicle on the 5300 block of Race Street and ran away from the area.
“He’s having fun, living his life every day while the two of them are in the hospital, struggling,” Johnson said. “It’s just not right. How can you do something like that and walk away as if you rolled over a paper bag in the street?”
Shuford is known to frequent the area of 18th and Venango and the 800 block of E. Cornwall street in Kensington, detectives said.
Anyone with information about his whereabouts is asked to immediately call 911 or the PPD’s Accident Investigation Division at 215-685-3180/81/82.
