Skip to content
News
Link copied to clipboard

Teen held in brother's slaying

A fight over a video game ended with a 16-year-old Delaware County boy dead and his younger brother charged with his murder.

A fight over a video game ended with a 16-year-old Delaware County boy dead and his younger brother charged with his murder.

"I just stabbed my brother," a sobbing Jahmir Ricks, 13, allegedly told police as they arrived at the home in the 200 block of North Maple Avenue, Lansdowne, in response to a 911 medical emergency call Sunday afternoon.

The younger Ricks has been charged as an adult with first- and third-degree murder, aggravated assault and other related charges after he allegedly took a steak knife and killed Antwan Ricks.

The two had been playing a sports video game when an argument erupted over who would play the next game, according to Lansdowne Police Chief Daniel J. Kortan Jr. "It was a dispute over the use of a video game," he said.

Police said the older boy had lost the game but did not give the next turn with the controller to his brother.

When officers got to the house just before 1 p.m., they found Jahmir Ricks out front crying. According to the police report, both he and his mother, Christine Ricks, told them that he had stabbed his brother. She said that her boyfriend, Joseph Fletcher, had decided not to wait for an ambulance and had taken "the lifeless body" of Antwan Ricks to nearby Delaware County Memorial Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 1:20 p.m.

An autopsy revealed that Antwan Ricks had died from a single stab wound to the heart, Kortan said. The weapon, a black-handled knife with a six-inch blade, was recovered from the home. The blade was bent and "appeared to be blood-stained," according to the police report.

"This is not something we face on a normal basis in our town," said Kortan, who noted that Lansdowne has had only a few homicides in the last 30 years.

Kortan said both teens were enrolled in the William Penn School District, but he did not know in what grades.

Yesterday, family and friends gathered on the porch of the two-story, end-row unit on the quiet street. A family spokesperson said the family was "doing well" but that Christine Ricks did not want anyone to comment.

Jahmir Ricks is being held at Delaware County Prison.