Man arrested in 1989 Philadelphia murder
Philadelphia police believe a 26-year-old murder mystery has been solved. Homicide detectives on Wednesday arrested 43-year-old Vicheth Prak in the Sept. 11, 1989, shooting death of 18-year-old Terrance Carter in South Philadelphia.
Philadelphia police believe a 26-year-old murder mystery has been solved.
Homicide detectives on Wednesday arrested 43-year-old Vicheth Prak in the Sept. 11, 1989, shooting death of 18-year-old Terrance Carter in South Philadelphia.
The detectives obtained an arrest warrant for Prak on Tuesday based on information developed by police in Lowell, Mass.
He was taken into custody by Lowell detectives acting on the Philadelphia warrant, said Middlesex County District Attorney Marian Ryan.
Prak was charged in Massachusetts with being a fugitive from justice and was ordered held without bail pending an extradition hearing scheduled for Mar. 25, Ryan said.
Terrance Carter was the 316th homicide victim of 1989.
The Inquirer reported back then that Carter's fatal shooting appeared to spark violence that night between blacks and Asians in the neighborhood.
In the next two hours, police reported two other shootings and a beating on 7th Street. One of the victims was a 14-year-old boy who was shot in the foot.
Police said Carter's death and what followed had more to do with drugs and late-night tension.
Carter and some friends were sitting outside Max's Food Store about 10:30 p.m. in the 2000 block of South 7th Street - around the corner from where Carter lived on Emily Street - when he was approached by two males.
One of them asked Carter, "Do you all remember me?" according to one account.
Carter was shot once in the knee and tried to run, and then he was shot in the back. He collapsed in an alley where his mother and stepfather found him.
Carter's stepfather drove him to Mount Sinai Hospital, where he died later that night.
215-854-5983
@RobertMoran215