Northeast mass shooting suspect discussed Ogontz homicide, court docs say

A phone call involving one of the teenagers charged in last week’s mass shooting near Northeast High School points to a connection between the attack and the fatal shooting of an Imhotep Institute High School student two days earlier.

The conversation – recorded because the caller was a state prison inmate – was detailed in court documents that also indicated that another suspect in the Burholme shooting was an active student at Roxborough High School.

Authorities on Wednesday published a wanted poster for the fourth and final suspect being sought in connection with the March 6 shooting at Cottman, Rising Sun and Oxford avenues, which left eight Northeast students hospitalized.

Asir Boone, 17, is wanted for attempted murder, the U.S. Marshals Service’s Philadelphia office said Wednesday afternoon. The federal agency is offering a $5,000 reward for tips leading to his arrest. Those with information are asked to call 1-866-865-TIPS(8477) or go to usmarshals.gov.

USMS’s local fugitive task force, after arresting a third suspect Tuesday, had said they would release the teen’s name if he did not surrender by Wednesday morning.

Agents apprehended that third suspect, 19-year-old Jermahd Carter, on Tuesday afternoon after surrounding a home in the Far Northeast, officials said.

Police on Monday announced that they had arrested the initial suspects – Jamaal Tucker and Ahnile Buggs, both 18. Investigators have said three gunmen and a driver participated in the shooting at a bustling intersection known as “Five Points.”

Although authorities have not commented on a motive or any possibly related shootings, Buggs’s affidavit of probable cause sheds light on a potential tie to a remarkably similar incident that occurred March 4 at Ogontz and Godfrey avenues.

As in the Northeast incident, shooters opened fire on a group of students gathered at a SEPTA bus stop. Dayemen Taylor, a 17-year-old Imhotep student, was killed and four other people, including a 71-year-old woman, were struck by the gunfire.

Last Thursday, three days after that homicide, and a day after the Northeast shooting, Dontaz McMillian, a 42-year-old man incarcerated at State Correctional Institution Pine Grove, called a phone number traced to Buggs, investigators say in the affidavit.

McMillian, in the conversation recounted in court records, refers to Buggs as his nephew and says, “I heard about your man, you good?” “Nah,” Buggs responds. “Yeah it’s never easy to digest,” McMillian says.

The two discuss the intended target of a shooting involving a bus. Detectives believe the exchange was referring to the Ogontz homicide, court documents add.

Records show McMillian was sentenced to four to eight years in prison after pleading guilty in 2018 to a robbery that occurred in Montgomery County.

Authorities used cell phone data to track the movements of Buggs and Tucker in the days and hours prior to and after the Five Points shooting, the affidavit says.

A phone believed to belong to Tucker, who turned 18 last month, spent March 5 in the area of Roxborough High during school hours, and the device returned to the school on the day of the shooting, before leaving at around 1:45 p.m. and heading towards the Northeast, investigators say.

While executing a search warrant at his father’s home, authorities recovered Tucker’s Roxborough High identification card, in addition to a handgun equipped with an extended magazine and a “switch” used to make it act like an automatic weapon, according to the affidavit.

Monique Braxton, a spokesperson for the School District of Philadelphia, referred questions about the suspects to the PPD.

Carter, Tucker and Buggs have each been charged with attempted murder, multiple counts of aggravated assault, weapons violations and related crimes. Buggs’s attorney declined to comment on the case, while legal representation for the other two men did not respond to a request for comment.

Bail for Tucker and Buggs has been set at 10% of $2 million, and both are being held in separate prisons in suburban counties, for unclear reasons. Carter’s bail is 10% of $500,000, and court records on Wednesday were not updated to show where he is jailed.