Police seek homicide suspect
City police are on the hunt for the alleged gunman who killed a 20-year-old Philadelphia man inside a Wick Street apartment Thursday morning.
According to an arrest warrant Butler Police obtained this morning, the suspect — 19-year-old David J. “Dae Dae” Franklin of Brackenridge, Allegheny County — had been searching for $900 he believed to be missing hours before he allegedly shot Rashaan Khalil “Smoke” Adams.
According to the criminal affidavit, Kimberly Schnur, the woman who rents the apartment, told police she witnessed the shooting.
Schnur allegedly told police that Adams, 25-year-old Raheem Robinson and a man she knew as “Dae Dae” were among a group of people at her house the night before the shooting.
At 8 a.m. Thursday, Schnur claims she was in her upstairs bedroom when Dae Dae woke her up to ask “where his money is,” the court records state. Schnur said Dae Dae was alleging $900 had been stolen from his pocket.
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Robinson, court records state, also alleged money had been stolen from him, but he left the home.
Dae Dae, according to the complaint, made contact with Adams and A.J. Hoy and told them to come to her house. Dae Dae then left to go to a car accident that allegedly involved Hoy and Adams.
Although the affidavit does not identify the site of the accident, witnesses on West Penn Street around 9:30 a.m. allegedly saw two black men run after crashing a Jeep into a house.
“I saw two guys,” said Ernest Thomas, the 26-year-old tenant of the house that was hit. He said he was upstairs with the youngest of his children, a 2-year-old daughter, getting ready do some errands with his wife before going to work. At the time, his wife was in the basement. “They were in the Jeep. They looked out and then jumped out They took off running.” He described the men being in their 20s or 30s.
Police Lt. Brian Grooms said it appeared the Jeep was northbound on Wagner Avenue when the driver traveled across West Penn Street, over the lawn and into the house. Thomas said he recognized the man who got out of the passenger side of the Jeep. He knew the man only as “A.J.” He also remembered seeing the same two men and the same Jeep about 30 minutes earlier at the A-Plus convenience store on West Jefferson Street.
“They were driving recklessly around the parking lot,” Thomas said. Schnur told police that after Dae Dae left her home to go to the crash, Hoy and Smoke returned to her home.They were outside the home when Dae Dae returned, she allegedly told police.Schnur said she let the three men inside her home “so they could talk things out.”Schnur said when the men walked into her living room she heard two shots being fired.She then ran into the room and witnessed Dae Dae shooting Rashaan Adams,” the affidavit states. Afterward, Schnur alleges Dae Dae ran out of the house.Court records say another woman who was inside Schnur's house provided investigators with a photo of Dae Dae that was stored on her cellular telephone. Court records say he was “holding a large sum of money” in the photo.The affidavit of probable cause states that investigators were able to determine that Dae Dae formerly lived in the city with his girlfriend. According to police records, police had been dispatched to the woman's city home in 2016 for a domestic dispute between her and her boyfriend, David Franklin.City police determined that photos on record of Franklin match the photo the woman provided of “Dae Dae.”On Friday, Butler County Coroner William Young III said an autopsy determined that Adams was shot three times: once in the chest and twice in the head.
Young said that the gunshot to Adams' chest was a “contact wound,” indicating that the barrel of the gun had been close to or pressed against the man's body.Young said his office has not yet determined what caliber or type of weapon was used.Franklin, according to the warrant District Judge William Fullerton signed this morning, is charged with homicide and a charge of discharging a firearm into an occupied structure, both felonies.Although a search of court records for Franklin did not indicate a criminal past, court documents say Adams was arrested twice last year — once in March and again in June — and charged with one count of aggravated assault both times.In both cases, which were prosecuted in Perry County, prosecutors ultimately dismissed the charge of aggravated assault against Adams, and he pleaded no contest to a single misdemeanor charge of simple assault. It appears, according to court documents, that Adams received credit for time served and was paroled after his sentencing. In August of 2015 Adams also was arrested in Philadelphia and charged with felony drug possession with intent to manufacture or deliver, according to online court documents. That charge, as well as a misdemeanor possession charge, were ultimately withdrawn by prosecutors in May of 2016, according to court documents.Court records show the apartment complex where the shooting occurred is owned by the Butler County Housing and Redevelopment Authority, and is intended for low-income individuals and families. Authority solicitor Andy Menchyk said Schnur had eviction proceedings initiated against her on Wednesday. At a hearing before Fullerton the judge ruled in favor of the authority and ordered Schnur to pay $579.85 in delinquent rent and court fees, according to court documents. Menchyk said that tenants have 10 days to vacate the property after an eviction ruling is issued against them. A young woman who lives at an adjoining apartment said she had only recently moved in, and already she had previously complained to the owner of the complex about the loud noise and constant “partying” coming from the apartment where the shooting happened.Eagle staff writers Jim Smith, Kim Paskorz, Phillip Rau and Joe Genco contributed to this report.
