A man accused of instigating a fight that led to a 2022 mass shooting in Philadelphia’s South Street entertainment district, leaving three people dead and 11 others wounded, has been sentenced to prison.
Rashaan Vereen, 36, will serve between nine and 23 months followed by four years of probation, CBS News Philadelphia reported Wednesday.
It was around 11:30 p.m. on June 4, 2022, when Vereen and a friend, 34-year-old Gregory Jackson, began arguing with another man, Micah Towns, investigators said at the time. After the three exchanged heated words, Jackson and Vereen attacked Towns.
Jackson pulled out his legally permitted gun and shot Towns, who fired back with his own licensed weapon. In all, they exchanged 17 shots, authorities said.
Jackson died, and Towns was wounded in the shooting but survived. The latter faced no charges since his actions were deemed self-defense.
Their conflict drew the attention of two teens a half block away, who started firing indiscriminately in their direction. They each killed an innocent bystander — one a youth counselor celebrating his 22nd birthday, and the other a 27-year-old home health aide. Those two shooters, 18-year-old Qaadir Dukes-Hill and 17-year-old Nahjee Whittington, were charged with murder.
“Sadly, there’s nothing new about (when) people hear shots fired, they reach for whatever weapons they have,” District Attorney Larry Krasner said when U.S. marshals picked the two teens up in Virginia soon after the shooting. “We have what started out as an unfair fistfight — two people attacking one person. In a country where you have some 300 million people and 500 million guns, it went from fists to bullets very, very quickly.”
Vereen was initially charged with attempted murder, aggravated assault, simple assault, recklessly endangering another person, conspiracy, violating the uniform firearms act, possession of an instrument of crime, tampering with evidence and obstruction of justice, according to U.S. marshals.
He was convicted of simple assault, conspiracy and recklessly endangering another person after a waiver trial, according to NBC Philadelphia. The murder charge was dropped after it was determined that Vereen had not fired a weapon.
With News Wire Services
