Police: Father kills son, 5; turns gun on boy's mother, himself

A 5-year-old boy was shot dead late Saturday night and his mother seriously injured in what Ridley Township police said was a shooting rampage by the child's father, who then shot himself in the head.

The boy, Cion Styles, died of a gunshot wound to the head. His father, Tyrell Styles, 26, of the 600 block of Reinhard Street in Philadelphia, died Sunday afternoon at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, the Delaware County District Attorney's Office said.

The child's mother, Sheyma Washington, underwent surgery at Crozer-Chester Hospital and was in stable condition Sunday evening.

According to Ridley police, at 11:10 p.m. Saturday, officers were dispatched to the Penn Ridge Apartments in the 1100 block of Haverford Road in the township's Crum Lynne section to investigate a report that several people had been shot.

Cion Styles was lying on the grass at the back of an apartment building, bleeding heavily from a gunshot wound to the head. Washington had been shot in the face and buttocks.

Washington told police she and her son had been attending a birthday party there for one of her sister's children earlier in the day. Styles had stopped by around 5 p.m. to spend time with Cion, she said.

When Styles returned shortly after 11 p.m., Washington went outside to retrieve her son, and shots were fired, according to authorities.

Washington told police she and Cion had been shot by Styles, who fled in a white Pontiac Grand Prix.

Several minutes later, police from Prospect Park, Norwood, and Tinicum saw the car running red lights on Chester Pike. The car crashed into a pickup truck at Oak Avenue and Chester Pike before continuing on Chester Pike, with police in pursuit.

It turned onto Brainerd Boulevard, a dead-end street in Sharon Hill. As officers approached the stopped car, Styles shot himself, police said.

His son was pronounced dead at Crozer-Chester Hospital. Hours later, at 1:05 p.m. Sunday, Styles was pronounced dead at HUP.

Styles had no criminal record and had a license to carry the gun he used, police said.