Teens to stand
trial for murder

By William Kenny
Times Staff Writer

James Canady and Darrin White won’t be home for the holidays.
Instead, the teens are spending them in a Philadelphia prison with a capital murder case looming over their heads.
Last week, a Municipal Court judge ordered both to stand trial for first-degree murder and related crimes in connection with the Aug. 9 shooting death of Crescentville grocery-store owner Jiaxing Lu.
The alleged gunman, Canady, was just 15 at the time, but, like the 19-year-old White, is being charged as an adult.
The 47-year-old victim’s wife and daughter witnessed the slaying inside Lu Grocery, at Cheltenham Avenue and Colgate Street.
The daughter, 24-year-old Li Lu, testified through an interpreter at the Dec. 18 preliminary hearing that Canady began firing a silver revolver through the store’s front door after the store owner and his family foiled a robbery attempt.
Canady, of the nearby 500 block of Carver St., and White, of 12th and Poplar streets in North Philadelphia, allegedly donned masks, burst into the business shortly after 10 a.m. and announced a robbery.
Li Lu testified that she was upstairs at the time, heard hear father scream and went to investigate. One of the masked men pointed a gun to her face, she said.
A physical struggle ensued during which she unmasked the gunman and recognized him as Canady, a neighborhood youth who had been arrested months earlier for trying to rob the store with a BB gun. Juvenile charges in that case eventually were dropped because of lack of evidence, prosecutors have said.
The daughter said she also recognized Canady as a former regular customer of the store.
While she and her mother pushed Canady out the front door, her father grappled with White, the daughter said. As White attempted to flee, Canady allegedly pointed the weapon through the doorway and fired at least three times.
According to Assistant District Attorney Michael Barry, the lead prosecutor in the case, Jiaxing Lu suffered a chest wound and a wound of the rear shoulder.
"He was hit once when he was upright and once when he was slumped over," Barry said.
Investigators also found a stray bullet hole but recovered no spent shell casings because Canady allegedly used a revolver.
The robbers fled the scene on foot. Li Lu called 911.
Paramedics rushed Jiaxing Lu to the Albert Einstein Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead just after 11 a.m.
Believing that the suspects had fled to Canady’s home around the corner, police surrounded the residence for several hours after the crime. But he was not inside.
White surrendered to police accompanied by family the following day. Canady did the same on Aug. 12.
Judge James DeLeon scheduled a Common Pleas Court arraignment for Jan 8. Under Pennsylvania law, neither defendant is eligible for bail because both are charged with a capital offense.
The victim was thought of highly by many neighbors who in the days after his death recalled how he managed a clean store, chased drug dealers and loiterers away from his corner and extended credit to customers who were short on cash.
Lu and his family, immigrants from China, operated the Crescentville store for about two years after running another business for many years in Delaware County.
According to neighbors, Canady had lived in the neighborhood for years and attended Ben Franklin Middle School, less than a block from the grocery store.
At the time of the shooting, Canady was enrolled at Samuel Fels High School but reportedly had dropped out. ••
Reporter William Kenny can be reached at 215-354-3031 or bkenny@phillynews.com