April 24, 2026
Thom Carroll/For PhillyVoice
Christopher Battle, 25, surrendered to police Thursday. He is charged with murder and related offenses for his alleged role in the Grays Ferry block party shooting last summer that killed four people.
A man wanted for his alleged role in the Grays Ferry shooting that killed four people and injured eight others last summer has surrendered to police.
Christopher Battle, 25, turned himself in Thursday morning — eight months after a warrant and $20,000 reward were issued for his arrest, police said.
Battle faces charges of murder, aggravated assault and related offenses, court documents show. Four other people also are facing charges in connection to the July 7 shooting at a block party on the 1500 block of South Etting Street.
Hundreds of people were gathered on the block when a barrage of gunfire erupted just before 1 a.m., investigators said. Video footage from a front-door camera shows bystanders rushing for cover as shots were being fired. More than 140 bullets were fired from at least 13 guns, police said.
Three people died of gunshot wounds that day — Zahir Wylie, 23, Jason Reese, 19, and Azir Harris, 24. The fourth person killed, Zamir Satchell, died of his wounds earlier this month. Eight other people also were shot. Another person was injured due to a fall that occurred amid the gunfire.
"There was no argument or no opposing party," Deputy Commissioner Frank Vanore said last summer. "We believe that one individual that was amongst (the) group fired a gun. We believe it may have been in the air. That caused at least a dozen other people with firearms to then begin recklessly and really intentionally firing ... I have no idea what all of them were firing at."
The four others facing charges — Dieve Jardine, 46, Brandon Fisher, 17, Daquan Brown, 22, and Terrell Frazier, 23 — were held for trial at a preliminary hearing in January. At their preliminary hearing, attorneys for Frazier and Fisher argued that prosecutors had not presented enough evidence to link them to the shooting, NBC10 reported. Attorneys for Jardine and Brown argued that they had fired in self defense and had legal gun permits.
Last month, prosecutors dropped charges against a man accused of being one of the gunmen, because new evidence called a witness's account into question. The man still faces charges for allegedly threatening the person who identified him to police.
