Skip to content
Crime & Justice
Link copied to clipboard

Brother vs. Brother

Three fratricides in two days.

In just two days this week at Philadelphia's Criminal Justice Center, there were three cases of fratricide: brother killing brother.

On Monday, there was the case of Robert A. Young, 57, who pleaded guilty to third-degree murder for shooting and killing his 62-year-old brother Allen Young after what the prosecutor said was an argument over food.

The July 12, 2014 murder occurred about 2-1/2 months after Allen was paroled to Robert's Oxford Circle house after serving about 30 years in state prisons for third-degree murder, voluntary manslaughter, and aggravated assault.

The post-prison adjustment was apparently rocky and Robert has begun serving 17-1/2 to 35 years in prison.

Also on Monday was a pretrial hearing for Anthony McGriff, 50, of West Philadelphia, accused of stabbing to death his brother John McGriff, 35, on May 3, after an argument in the home they shared.

And on Tuesday, 29-year-old Dominic Rountree was ordered to stand trial for murder in the Sept. 21 shooting of his 31-year-old brother Jacquell Rountree in the Parkside rowhouse they share with their 88-year-old father, their sister, another brother and Jacquell's girlfriend and their two kids.

Not surprisingly, the argument was over living space.

Fratricide is arguably the first reported murder, as in the Bible's story of Cain and Abel, or the Roman legend of Romulus and Remus. Despite the bad press, fratricide is not the most common form of homicide.

According to a 2005 report, "Family Violence Statistics," by the federal Bureau of Justice Statistics, about 18 percent of family-related murders involved a sibling victim. The analysis of 9,102 murders in 2002 showed that 72 percent of sibling murders were brother killing brother, 14 percent involved a brother killing a sister and another 14 percent involved a sister killing a brother or sister.

Only about a quarter of homicides involve the victim being killed by a stranger, according to the report.