Philadelphia police named a suspect in the May 20 shooting death of a 25-year-old Frankford man on Saturday mere hours after someone tried to firebomb the home of the victim’s father.
Detectives have not definitively linked Jalil Cooper, 20, of the 4200 block of Penn St., to the firebombing attempt, said Officer Christine O’Brien, a police spokeswoman. But Cooper is the suspect in the murder of Edward Pagan and the wounding of Pagan’s father, Victor Guzman.
The shooting occurred outside Guzman’s house on the 1200 block of Adams Ave. after Pagan refused to give Cooper a cigarette, police said, so Cooper shot him at least three times. Guzman, a 49-year-old city corrections officer, tried to intervene in the confrontation and suffered a wound of the left forearm.
Pagan died that night at Temple University Hospital. Guzman was treated at Temple and released.
Guzman was at home at about 5:30 a.m. last Sunday when a bottle crashed through his front window and shattered inside the house, spilling what appeared to be gasoline on the floor. The device was not on fire, O’Brien said.
Two women, ages 44 and 69, were also in the house. Police did not disclose their names.
No injuries were reported.
Police found a second shattered bottle alongside the exterior of the house, as well as three unbroken bottles in a lot next door, all containing what appeared to be gasoline, O’Brien said.
Detectives are investigating possible links between Saturday’s incident and the homicide case. ••
