Mystery surrounds young dad’s death

Neighbors yesterday remembered shooting victim Corey White, 22, as a friendly, respectful young father murdered Monday night only a couple blocks from his home.

“He recognized the seniors in the neighborhood,” neighbor Rebecca Brown said yesterday. “When he’d see me with a bag, he’d say, ‘Let me carry that for you, Mrs. Brown.’”

White was shot to death on the 5100 block of Hadfield Street in West Philadelphia near his home.

Police said he was outside a friend’s apartment around 7:45 p.m. when two men pulled up in a brown car. After exchanging words with White, one of the men got out, shot him once in the chest and the two drove away, police said.

White became the target of an alleged Facebook murder-for-hire plot when the mother of his child, London Eley, 20, allegedly posted on her page that she would pay someone a “stack” to kill her baby’s father. Timothy Bynum, 18, allegedly offered to carry out the deed. The two are being held on charges stemming from the incident.

Detectives said the two suspects in the Facebook case from June were in custody at the time of the shooting and still are, but they would not rule out connection to the case.

“It’s too early to tell. We are looking into that as one possible motive,” said Homicide Capt. James Clark. “There are a couple other theories out there.”

Family members, clearly distraught, refused to comment yesterday.