Federal prosecutors this week charged five men accused of impersonating Philadelphia police officers in the 2006 kidnapping and slaying of a 38-year-old man.
The indictment filed in U.S. District Court in Eastern Pennsylvania alleges that the men, posing as police officers with fake badges, police lights and firearms, kidnapped Shamari Taylor and her 21-year-old girlfriend from West Philadelphia to rob him. cocaine and drug money.
CBS Philadelphia
Kevin Holloway, 45; Mark Scott, 48; Linton Mathis, 50; Atiba Wicker, 47; and Kenneth Tuck, 51, were charged in federal court with conspiracy to commit kidnapping resulting in death, kidnapping resulting in death and aiding and abetting.
The pair were sitting in a car in the Philadelphia neighborhood of Overbrook on Aug. 26, 2006, when they were abducted and taken to a warehouse, CBS News Philadelphia reported. The kidnappers released the girlfriend several hours later, but Taylor, son of a former state representative, remained missing. A day after Taylor disappeared, someone broke into her family's home in West Philadelphia and shot her sister and mother in the head. Both survived.
Authorities located Taylor's remains nearly 12 years later, on Aug. 21, 2018, in a shallow grave in North Philadelphia, a Justice Department statement said. Federal prosecutors said his captors suffocated him. Taylor was identified through dental records, CBS News Philadelphia reported.
Philadelphia County arrested and charged Kenneth Tuck in connection with Taylor's kidnapping in September 2006, but after two trials he was acquitted of all charges.
Law enforcement agencies, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Philadelphia Police Department, the Drug Enforcement Administration and Pennsylvania State Parole, continued the investigation until charges were filed this week.
“Anyone who commits a heinous crime and walks free years later can assume they got away with it,” said U.S. Attorney Romero. “Well, they should think again. We and our law enforcement partners will doggedly seek justice for the victims of violence and accountability for the perpetrators, no matter how long it takes.”
