Germantown residents must move after fatal-shooting victim’s car crashes into home

A 25-year old man was fatally shot inside his car Monday morning in the East Germantown section of the city, police said.

At 3:10 a.m., an unknown suspect got out of a tan SUV near the 5800 block of Baynton St. and fired into an early 1990s Oldsmobile.

After the victim was shot in the chest, his car rolled into and smacked the front façade of a property on the corner of the 300 block of East Rittenhouse Street.

Police said the victim was taken to Albert Einstein Medical Center where he was pronounced dead at 3:40 a.m.

There are no possible motives at this time, but the incident had ramifications to those living nearby.

Neighborhood reaction

On Monday afternoon, police tape still cordoned off the front yard and door of Janie Wright’s home. A large bush lay flattened against her front windows near a swatch of buckled brick. An emergency ventilator sat limply atop burnt-red gravel.

William Wright, one of Janie’s sons, drove down from the Northeast to check on his 72-year-old mother. He said Janie and his brother, who also lives there, were both asleep when the car struck the house.

“It wasn’t that loud,” said William Wright of the crash. “My brother thought my mother might have fallen out of the bed.”

Wright said the incident itself didn’t upset his mother much, other than not being keen on having to move as a direct result.

The property is owned by the Philadelphia Housing Authority and there’s too much structural damage for her to remain. As a result, Janie Wright was moving out later in the day. She will stay with family until she can settle into a new PHA-owned property in the neighborhood.

“Ain’t nothing worth killing nobody,” said William as he surveyed the intersection.