Police charge 2 teens in delivery driver's slaying

RENDONG ZHENG used to visit Joaquim Marmolejos every day to buy a pack of Marlboro Lights.

But when the city bumped up the price of a pack of smokes by $2 to support the school district, Zheng stopped patronizing Marmolejos' store, the Dean Deli Grocery, just one door away from New China, the restaurant where Zheng worked as a delivery driver.

Zheng, whose wife once worked at the restaurant on Rising Sun Avenue near Rosalie Street in Crescentville, would always greet Marmolejos whenever they ran into one another.

Conversations didn't get too far, the deli owner said: He speaks very little English; Zheng spoke even less.

Marmolejos, 50, saw Zheng for the last time about 9 p.m. Thursday, he said. He walked past Marmolejos' car and waved.

Hours later, Zheng was dead, allegedly gunned down by two careless teenagers, according to police.

Zheng, 49, was killed while making a delivery to the Hill Creek Apartments, a Philadelphia Housing Authority complex in Crescentville less than a mile from the eatery, police said.

Over the weekend, investigators arrested two teens in the slaying: Sahmir Walker, 14, and Tyquail Duffy, 15, both of whom live at the apartment complex, on Adams Avenue near Rising Sun, police said.

Walker has been charged with murder, robbery, criminal conspiracy and related offenses in Zheng's slaying, police said.

Duffy, however, faces charges of aggravated assault, intimidation, terroristic threats, firearms violations and related offenses in a "separate but related incident," according to Lt. John Stanford, a police spokesman.

Stanford declined to elaborate, only saying that the incident in question occurred "within the same time frame" as the fatal shooting.

Last night, a police source told the Daily News that Duffy is accused of using a gun to scare into silence someone who knew about his involvement in the shooting.

The teens allegedly attacked Zheng about 10:30 p.m. while he was in the complex on a "legitimate delivery," Stanford said yesterday. They made it their goal, apparently spontaneously, to hold him up, Stanford said.

"They just decided then and there that they wanted to rob him," he added.

Last night, Hill Creek residents said the shooting happened in "the park," an isolated cul-de-sac at the fringes of the apartment complex.

The duo approached Zheng and announced their intention. He tried to flee, but the teens fired at least 12 shots at his car, police said.

Several residents nearby heard the barrage of gunfire. One woman said last night that a bullet had ricocheted off the support column for the awning above her front door.

Zheng was hit once - in his left shoulder - and was able to make it to the nearby intersection of Adams Avenue and Bingham Street before losing control of his vehicle and crashing into a fence.

Medics took him to Einstein Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead about 11 p.m., police said.

- Staff writer Dana DiFilippo

contributed to this report.