Brother: Tioga store owner 'blindsided' by killer
Pope Waters says his brother, Jamal Connor, was deliberately targeted by the gunman who shot him as he sat inside a parked car Friday.
FOR YEARS, Jamal Connor wanted a Mercedes.
So he developed a plan to make his dream car a reality, stuck with it, and bought himself a 2010 Mercedes-Benz S-class. That was his nature, friends said: Methodical and meticulous.
The Tioga entrepreneur's violent death early Friday inside that prized ride floored everyone who knew him.
"It shouldn't have gone down like this," Pope Waters said tonight of his brother's slaying. "He was a peaceful guy; he didn't deserve this."
Police found Connor, 39, slumped in the driver's seat of his Mercedes just before 1 a.m. on Silver Street near 26th in North Philly, Chief Inspector Scott Small said.
A gunman had fired seven shots at point-blank range into the car's window, striking Connor in the head and face. Medics pronounced him dead at the scene minutes later, Small said.
Police said they have no information on a motive or suspect, but Waters claims that his brother was targeted.
Connor was on that stretch of Silver Street to visit his girlfriend, according to Waters. He believes his brother was attacked by the woman's ex-lover, who ambushed him when he saw Connor's car pull up.
"This was not random," Waters said. "He was blindsided; he didn't have a chance."
Tonight, Waters, his family and some of Connor's closest friends gathered for a vigil at O'Malleys, the hoagie shop on 22nd Street near Bellevue that Connor opened in 2006.
"When I got the call saying 'Someone killed Jamal,' it was like an airplane crashed through my house," Kofi McCoy, a lifelong mentor for Connor, said.
"I feel a terrible emptiness in my chest."
McCoy met Connor when he was just a boy, eager to pick up some odd jobs at the older man's business, the Real McCoy Variety Store.
For years, the two "stuck together," McCoy, 70, said last night. Connor shadowed the store owner, picking up business lessons like how to fill out a check and place orders with vendors.
When McCoy closed up shop in 1998, he handed the space over to his protege. After a few years of preparation, Connor opened up his eatery in the same space, renovating it in his own design.
"We talked almost every day," said McCoy, who now lives in Germantown. "Now, I don't even know what to think.
"I just feel messed up inside."