Number charged in Piazza shooting may grow, police say

Investigators yesterday indicated that, with four people now in custody in last month's Piazza at Schmidts shootings, as many as 10 could be charged in the two killings.

Capt. James Clark, commander of the Homicide Unit, yesterday said that five or six more people could be arrested in the case. Surveillance video photographed much of what happened before and after the shootings.

The list of suspects includes Donnell Murchison, 33, whom Clark identified as the "main shooter." A $10,000 reward has been posted for information leading to his capture.

The latest suspect taken into custody is Edward Daniels, 42, arrested while meeting with his parole officer July 11.

Daniels has been charged with murder, robbery, criminal conspiracy, burglary, and weapons offenses in the deaths of Rian Thal, a 34-year-old party planner, and Timothy Gilmore, a 40-year-old long-haul trucker from Canal Winchester, Ohio.

Police said Daniels, who was being held at the Curran-Fromhold Correctional Facility, is the heavyset man seen with the other gunmen in the footage recorded inside the Navona building at the Piazza complex in Northern Liberties.

"This is one more piece of the puzzle," Clark said of Daniels' arrest.

Meanwhile, a hearing scheduled yesterday for the man authorities say masterminded the crime, Will "Pooh" Hook, 40, was postponed until September - to the displeasure of his attorney, Christopher Warren, who has said he wants his client released on bail.

Police last week accused Hook of orchestrating the June 27 robbery that led to Thal and Gilmore being killed outside her home. He was charged with two counts of murder.

Authorities say he set up an ambush to steal drugs from her. Police think she was a player in the region's drug scene, and four kilograms of cocaine and more than $100,000 in cash were found in her apartment. Police think Gilmore was her associate, possibly a supplier.

Police also have charged Katoya Jones, 25, who lives in the building where the killings happened, with murder, conspiracy, and other offenses. Police said Jones, a friend of Hook's, let the killers into the building.

Also arrested this month was Robert Keith, 27, who police said went to Thal's building with Hook earlier on the day of the killings in an attempt to break into her unit. The two broke into the wrong apartment.

Hook denies any involvement with the shootings or the break-in, Warren said, and said he does not know Daniels or Murchison. Warren has complained repeatedly about Hook's treatment in jail, saying police have threatened Hook, denied him his rights, and intimidated his friends and family.

Warren also said that investigators had not indicated whether they have any physical evidence linking Hook to the shootings or the break-in, and that the warrant for Hook's arrest on burglary charges cites unnamed witnesses who did not actually see Hook break down the door.

Clark declined to comment on the specific evidence investigators have collected, but said of Hook: "We feel we have a very strong case against him."