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Police nab 5th suspect in Piazza killings; several more expected

A fifth suspect has been arrested in connection with the June 27 double slaying at the Piazza at Schmidts retail and apartment complex in Northern Liberties.

A fifth suspect has been arrested in connection with the June 27 double slaying at the Piazza at Schmidts retail and apartment complex in Northern Liberties.

Yesterday, Lt. Philip Riehl said that Langdon Scott, 26, of 18th Street near Erie Avenue, was arrested Friday after being observed "numerous times" on a surveillance video with suspected triggermen Donnell Murchison and Edward Daniels before two people were shot in the seventh-floor hallway of the Navona apartment building.

Capt. James Clark said that about five or six others could ultimately be arrested in the slayings of Rian Thal and Timothy Gilmore, including Murchison.

Riehl said that police are trying to identify a gunman and a lookout from 160 discs of surveillance tapes.

Scott, who had a Gap bag slung over his shoulder, "attempted to make a [drug] purchase or gain access to [Thal's] apartment about an hour-and-a-half before the murders," said Riehl.

During Scott's 40-minute visit, he added, "There was no evidence of a gun."

Riehl said one videotape showed Murchison, Daniels and Scott getting on the elevator in the lobby and Gilmore running to catch the elevator.

On the seventh floor, the detective added, Murchison and Daniels got off first, and walked ahead of Gilmore down the hall and Scott was behind. Gilmore entered Thal's apartment.

Riehl said that Murchison, Daniels and Scott apparently took the fire stairwell downstairs. Scott left the building between 3:45 and 4 p.m.

Scott was charged with robbery, burglary, criminal trespass and conspiracy, police said.

He was being held in Curran Fromhold Correctional Facility with Daniels and Will Hook, who was the alleged mastermind of what police describe as a drug robbery-turned-murder and who was arrested under an alias, Keith Epps.

Co-defendant Robert Keith, 27, allegedly helped Hook kick in the wrong apartment on the sixth floor, early the morning of the murders. He is charged with burglary and criminal trespass.

On July 13, the feds adopted a state gun case, charging Keith as a felon in possession of a firearm, in connection with a June 22 burglary. That means that Keith is being held in a federal facility.

The only female suspect in the case is Katoya Jones, 25, who police said opened the lobby door of the apartment building for one of the suspects an hour before the murders. She is being held at the Riverside Correctional Facility.*