Philadelphia witness to killing who recanted is beaten to death

A witness who later recanted in the slaying of a mother of four killed by a stray bullet was beaten to death Saturday night in West Philadelphia, police said Sunday.

Investigators were not sure whether the killing was related to the woman's death and were exploring other possible motives.

Akeel Prout, 26, was punched and stomped by six men about 10 p.m. on the 500 block of North 55th Street, police said. One of the assailants reached into the victim's pocket and took something before fleeing.

Prout was taken unconscious and bleeding to the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, where he died at 10:26 p.m., police said.

Prout, who lived in the 5200 block of Berks Street in the city's Wynnefield section, had six prior arrests, including for drug offenses, and was on probation for a weapons conviction.

No one answered the door at his home Sunday afternoon although people could be heard talking inside.

Prout had been a witness in the killing of Hafeezah Nurid-Din, an Overbrook mother and schoolteacher killed by a stray bullet through the heart in October 2011.

According to police, Prout identified the gunman as Daniel Shelley, now 19.

Police said Shelley, seeking revenge for a shooting that wounded his brother months earlier, rode up on his bicycle and opened fire on a group of young men.

The intended targets fled unscathed, but a bullet hit Nurid-Din outside her Malvern Avenue home as she returned from a grocery store.

At Shelley's preliminary hearing in February 2012, Prout recanted, testifying he did not know Shelley and had never seen him.

He acknowledged being at the scene, but testified he only helped put the dying woman - whom he knew in passing - into a car so a relative could take her to a hospital.

Despite the recantation, prosecutors planned to use at trial Prout's statement to investigators, which was read into the record at the preliminary hearing.

According to court records, a status hearing is set for March 1 in Shelley's case with an anticipated trial date of April 15.

The records also show that while in jail, Shelley was charged with possessing a weapon for possible use in an escape. A trial is set for Feb. 22 on that charge.