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Arrest warrant in shooting of pregnant woman

Philadelphia police have obtained an arrest warrant for a suspect in the shooting death of a pregnant woman in Frankford on Sunday.

Philly police have issued an arrest warrant for Devon Guisherd in the slaying of Megan Doto, 26. Doto was 8 months pregnant when she was shot. Her baby also died.
Philly police have issued an arrest warrant for Devon Guisherd in the slaying of Megan Doto, 26. Doto was 8 months pregnant when she was shot. Her baby also died.Read more

Philadelphia police have obtained an arrest warrant for a suspect in the shooting death of a pregnant woman in Frankford on Sunday.

Police identified the suspect as Devon Guisherd, 26. He is being sought in the death of Megan Doto, 25, who was struck once in the face by a stray bullet while sitting outside Sunday morning, and pronounced dead less than two hours later.

Doto was eight months pregnant. Her baby, a girl, was delivered in an emergency procedure at Temple University Hospital shortly after the shooting. The baby survived for a little more than 12 hours and was pronounced dead early Monday.

Police said they believe Guisherd fired 10 or 11 shots at a white car driving down Griscom Street. One of those shots, they said, struck Doto in a cheek as she sat in a lawn chair on Adams Avenue 100 yards away.

Police said Guisherd's last known address is on the 4700 block of North Penn Street in Frankford - less than a mile from where the shooting took place.

Guisherd has eight previous arrests, a law enforcement source said.

Investigators believe the shooting was part of an ongoing drug battle. Guisherd's brother was shot dead about a month ago, a few blocks from where Doto was killed, a law enforcement source said.

Guisherd, who had a reputation for carrying - and firing - a gun in the neighborhood, was bent on revenge, the source said. He had gone looking for his brother's killers in recent weeks, the source said. Then, on Sunday, some men in a white Impala circled Griscom Street and Guisherd opened fire, the source said.

Homicide Capt. James Clark on Tuesday credited the work of Detectives Omar Jenkins and Fred Mole in the case, and said the community's help played a critical role in identifying a suspect.

"The community came out large in this case," Clark said, adding that several people came forward with information. They did not seem to be motivated by the $40,000 reward in the case, he said, but rather "the tragedy of it, a pregnant woman and her baby killed."

Guisherd is still at large, and police say he is considered armed and dangerous.

He is out on bail for a November 2012 drug-dealing case that is scheduled for trial in March. That drug case had been postponed, court records show, while prosecutors brought an attempted-murder case against Guisherd stemming from the 2007 shooting of a man on Frankford Avenue.

The case originally ended in a mistrial in 2010 after the victim, who had been shot in his legs, failed to identify Guisherd in court. In April, a jury acquitted Guisherd in a retrial.