Police charge boyfriend in murder of 21-year-old Temple student

Murder charges have been filed against the boyfriend of a 21-year-old Temple University student found in her off-campus apartment with a gunshot wound to the head, a death originally thought to be a suicide.

Police on Tuesday arrested Brandon Meade, 29, of the 7100 block of Stockley Road in Upper Darby, and filed charges against him in the death of Agatha Hall, whose body was found about 12:35 a.m. Aug. 31 in her home on the 2300 block of North Park Avenue.

Charlie Leone, Temple's head of campus safety services, said last week that Hall was found in her room and that a 9mm handgun had been found next to her. Temple police at first believed her death was a suicide, he said.

After thorough testing, however, the Philadelphia Medical Examiner's Office ruled "that it was impossible for the victim's gunshot wound to be self-inflicted, and the manner of death was ruled a homicide," according to a Philadelphia Police Department statement issued Wednesday.

Relatives said Meade was Hall's boyfriend.

Hall, who graduated from Northeast High School, was born in Liberia and lived in a refugee camp in Ghana before moving to the United States around 2004. She was a third-year student at Temple studying finance.

Meade was in custody awaiting arraignment Wednesday afternoon.