Three men are facing murder charges for the fatal assault of Kevin Kless, a 23-year-old Temple graduate who was beaten unconscious on Chestnut Street near 4th and died at Jefferson Hospital last Saturday.
A tipster led police to the suspects, Steven Ferguson, 20, Kenneth Santiago, 19, and Felix Carrillo, 23, Lt. James Clark, commanding officer of the Philadelphia Police Homicide Division said early Saturday morning.
Kless was leaving a bar in Old City along with his girlfriend and a second female companion around 2:30 a.m. last Saturday when he tried and failed to hail a cab in the bitter cold.
Police said Kless began shouting and cursing, and the suspects likely believed his anger was directed at them. They got out of the car and beat Kless unconscious in front of the two women who screamed for help. After the assault, the men left Kless lying on the sidewalk in the Historic District, jumped back in their car and sped away, police said.
Ferguson, of Solly Avenue near Tabor in Fox Chase, was brought to police headquarters for questioning around 5 p.m., Clark said.
Santiago, of Dungan Street near Erie Avenue in Juniata Park, was brought in for questioning around 8 p.m.
Carrillo, of Fairhill Street near Louden in Olney, was in custody by 8:30 p.m., Clark said, adding that none of the men were known to police before this incident.
Early Saturday morning, Clark, along with Deputy Police Commissioner Richard Ross, said the police department was sure that the right men were arrested in connection with the brutal attack. Mug shots of the men were not immediately available after police announced the arrests.
“This is a very tragic event,” Ross said in the lobby of police headquarters early Saturday morning, “But, we are happy that this job came to a successful conclusion.”
The City of Philadelphia, the Fraternal Order of Police and the Citizens Crime Commission offered a $20,000 reward for information leading to the suspects.
Ross and Clark thanked the tipster, homicide detectives and the US Marshals Fugitive Task Force for their help in tracking the men down.
Dana DiFilippo has covered murder, mayhem and miscellany at the Daily News since 2000. She grew up in Delaware County and studied journalism and photography at Penn State University. E-mail tips to difilid@phillynews.com.
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Stephanie Farr has been reporting for the Daily News since 2007, covering everything from gay porn stars who entered the burglary business to moon trees, skinheads, murders and naked bike rides. She covers crime, both in the city and suburbs, and keeps clippings of bizarre Associated Press articles. Her favorite this year was the story about the drunk in Punxsutawney who gave mouth-to-mouth resuscitation to a dead opossum. E-mail tips to farrs@phillynews.com.
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Phillip Lucas joined the Daily News crime team in 2011. He grew up on the mean streets of Seattle and studied journalism and psychology at Howard University in Washington, D.C. Before landing in the City of Brotherly Love, Phillip was a reporter for The News Journal in Wilmington, Del. Email tips to lucasp@phillynews.com.
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Morgan Zalot is the newest crime reporter at the Daily News, starting in 2011 after interning at the paper twice as a Temple University journalism student. In her past stints at the DN, she covered just about everything, from drunken Phillies fans to a barber shop in a high school to a grisly murder-suicide. She’s a born-and-raised Philly girl who grew up in the Northeast. E-mail tips to zalotm@philly.com.
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