7 in custody,more sought in slayings

By KITTY CAPARELLA
Philadelphia Daily News

Two alleged triggermen, including Donnell Murchison, the man accused of firing the fatal shots, were charged yesterday in the June 27 double slaying at the Piazza at Schmidts, a retail and apartment complex in Northern Liberties.

Seven suspects are now in custody, including all three gunmen and one of two lookouts caught on surveillance tapes in the seventh-floor hallway immediately before the fatal shootings of Rian Thal and Timothy Gilmore.

Authorities are looking for as many as four or five others.

Yesterday, Homicide Sgt. Frank Hayes said that Murchison, 33, of Limekiln Pike near Stenton Avenue, West Oak Lane, and Antonio Wright, 28, of Elkins Park, were each charged with two counts of murder, conspiracy, robbery, burglary and criminal trespass. On Wednesday, while Murchison was trying to elude a dozen members of the Violent Crime Fugitive Task Force in Northeast Philadelphia, Wright was brought in for questioning, Hayes said.

"A lot of work went in this," Hayes said, referring to the arrests of the men accused of being the most violent participants in the drug robbery-turned-double murder.

Murchison's arrest represented a coup for law enforcement because he was considered "a very active participant in the murders," Hayes said.

Authorities yesterday could not say whether any tipster qualified for a $10,000 reward for information leading to Murchison's capture.

Murchison was paroled in 2007 after serving 10 years of a 20-year sentence for a vicious armed robbery on July 1, 1996.

Because Murchison is seen on video with a gun, he faces parole violations in which he could be ordered to complete the remaining seven years of his sentence.

If convicted of killing Thal, 34, a party planner-turned-drug dealer, and Gilmore, 40, a Detroit firefighter-turned-drug dealer, he would face additional prison time.

About 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, a deputy U.S. marshal whose name was not released was the first to spot Murchison trying to escape through a rear second-floor window of a house on Ryerson Road near Willits and radioed the surveillance team, said Acting U.S. Marshal John Patrignani.

The deputy, who was focusing on Murchison, got out of his car and was crossing Willits Road when a minivan hit him, Patrignani said.

Murchison, meantime, escaped into the woods of Pennypack Park and was captured when he came out the other side, Patrignani said.

"We knew he was the alleged shooter, and very dangerous, in a bold and very public crime," he added.

Today, the deputy could be released from Aria Health-Torresdale Campus, after being under observation for two days in the intensive-care unit for head injuries and multiple cuts and bruises, "but luckily no broken bones," said Patrignani.

"It was an unfortunate accident," he added.

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