Three young men are set to spend the rest of their lives in prison for a shooting two years ago at a North Philadelphia basketball court that left three people dead and a fourth individual seriously injured.
Authorities recovered evidence indicating that more than 100 bullets were fired at around 6 p.m. Friday, Aug. 11, 2023, at the 8th and Diamond Playground. Surveillance video captured several young children running from the scene as the gunfire erupted.
Nyreese Moore, 22, and Naasir Folk, 24, were killed almost instantly, while 21-year-old Isaiah Williams succumbed to his injuries a day later. A 23-year-old man was struck in the abdomen and hospitalized for a significant period of time, prosecutors said.
“We celebrated my granddaughter's first birthday, and two to three weeks later, her father was gone,” Moore’s father, Taris Foster, said Wednesday at a news conference about the case organized by the District Attorney’s Office.
Tyyon Bates, 21, Quaza Lopez, 22, and Eric Reid, 23, were each sentenced Monday to three consecutive life sentences and an additional 24 to 48 years in jail in connection with the incident.
Assistant District Attorney Cydney Pope said there were six shooters and that investigators still have not identified two of the suspects.
The same jury convicted Bates, Lopez and Reid; found 21-year-old Sufyaan Kinslow not guilty on all counts; and remained deadlocked on the charges against 23-year-old Tynel Love, resulting in a mistrial. A spokesperson for the DA’s Office said prosecutors intend to re-try Love.
“The evidence was overwhelming against the three defendants who were convicted, and I think it was just the exact opposite for Mr. Love,” George S. Yacoubian, Love’s legal counsel, told Metro. “And I say with some confidence that, at the next trial, we expect him to be found not guilty of everything.”
Authorities do not believe Kinslow was among the shooters; instead, they argued he was part of a criminal conspiracy due to associations with the gunmen.
“I think that the evidence clearly showed that my client was not involved with this shooting and was rightfully vindicated,” attorney Andrew David Montroy, who represented Kinslow, said.
Pope said the violence was intended as revenge for the 2018 killing of Tyyon’s 14-year-old brother, Tyree Bates, who was gunned down in the area of 4th Street and Susquehanna Avenue.
The suspects were part of a street group based at 4th and Diamond who were targeting anyone hanging out a few blocks away, at 8th and Diamond, she added. Two of the three men who were killed – Folk and Williams – did not even live in the neighborhood, according to law enforcement.
“It’s a very unfortunate situation,” Moore’s cousin, Cody Carter, said at the news conference. “It just breaks my heart that young men are doing this to each other. I just pray for better days.”
Investigators relied heavily on surveillance footage to build a case against Bates, Lopez and Reid. Hours before the murder, a camera captured Bates purchasing a white truck for $225 in Kensington, according to the DA’s Office.
The vehicle was later picked up on security footage at a lot on the 1700 block of N. 6th Street, where the gunmen prepared for the shooting, Pope said. In the aftermath of the violence, they returned to the site.
Bates was mistakenly shot by his co-defendants, who put him in another car and drove him to Virtua Marlton Hospital, where he told medical staff he had been wounded in Camden, prosecutors said.
Reid and Lopez were apprehended a couple of weeks after the shooting; Bates, however, eluded capture for 18 months, until March 2025, even though law enforcement had issued an arrest warrant.
“While he is on the run, he is trolling and bragging about the murders,” said Pope, referring to multiple posts made by Bates on Instagram.
A jury found Bates, Reid and Lopez guilty on three counts of murder, conspiracy, weapons violations and reckless endangerment following a two-week trial. First Assistant District Attorney Robert Listenbee said the hefty sentences should serve as an example to others.
“If you are involved in shootings at recreational centers or anywhere else, especially where there are multiple victims, we will do everything we can to investigate the cases, and we will prosecute these cases to the fullest extent of the law,” he said.
