It was surveillance footage that led detectives to a suspect in a Frankford double murder, according to Capt. John McCloskey.
Speaking to residents who live in the southernmost third of the 15th Police District gathered in Aria Health’s Frankford campus on March 27, the captain said detectives were able to identify a man seen on recordings obtained from a security camera near the 4600 block of Trenton Street. McCloskey said William Deputy, 36, of the 6100 block of Oxford Avenue, has been charged with fatally shooting Antorie Coates, 35, of the 4300 block of North 16th Street. and Alida Maria Cruz, 30, of the 1300 block of Unity Street, early on Feb. 22. He then poured gasoline on the Ford Windstar that contained their bodies and set it ablaze, McCloskey said.
Firefighters responding to the blaze at 3:55 a.m., quickly put it out and found the bodies inside the van.
McCloskey said detectives working the case saw cameras on a nearby property and asked the owner to see security recordings, and that’s where they saw Deputy setting the van afire.
“The video was the big break,” the captain said.
Images were shown to the victims’ family and friends, and they recognized Deputy, McCloskey said. Supposedly, he added, Coates had stolen drugs and cash from Deputy, who then found out about it and went after Coates. Cruz was killed, the captain said, “because she just happened to be there.”
Deputy currently is being held in the Curran-Fromhold Correctional Facility on State Road. He is facing murder, arson, weapons and abuse of a corpse charges. He is due for a preliminary hearing in Room 306 of the Criminal Justice Center on April 9.
Also at the March 27 session at Aria Health, the captain said a catastrophe was narrowly averted Sunday, March 23, when two teens tried to set a Frankford church afire after pouring gasoline on its roof.
One boy, about 13–15 years old, and an older teen poured the gas on the church in an old bank building at 4400 Frankford Ave. at about 12:40 p.m., McCloskey said. There were about 100 people in the structure at the time, the captain added. However, some of them caught on that something was going on, went outside and chased the teens away before they could set the gas ablaze. McCloskey said the crime has been declared an arson. ••
