November 27, 2021
Thom Carroll/for PhillyVoice
Philadelphia police have identified the victim and arrested a person of interest in the city's 500th murder of the year, which tied the all-time record set in 1990. Eloise Harmon, 55, was shot three times in the chest in broad daylight on Wednesday following a domestic dispute. Her estranged husband was taken into custody on Friday.
Philadelphia police have identified the victim and arrested a person of interest in the city's 500th homicide of the year, which tied the all-time record set in 1990.
Eloise Harmon, 55, was shot three times in the chest in broad daylight on Wednesday following a domestic dispute. The shooting happened on Jackson and South 7th streets in South Philadelphia, near Harmon's home.
The victim was seen running down the street on the afternoon of Thanksgiving Eve shouting for bystanders to call 911 before she was shot to death with a handgun.
Police believe Harmon's estranged husband was responsible for the brazen killing. After the shooting, surveillance video caught him casually walking away from the crime scene with the gun still in hand. The weapon has since been recovered.
He was taken into custody on Friday after barricading himself in a home on the 500 block of North Gross Street in West Philadelphia for two hours. The suspect has not yet been identified by police.
A neighbor of Harmon's told CBS3 that the couple broke up roughly two weeks ago.
A friend of Harmon's who also lives nearby told the Inquirer that the victim grew up in the neighborhood and had lived in her home on Jackson Street for about a decade.
She was remembered as an engaged community member and activist who worked to keep her block free of drugs and violence as far back as the nineties.
Harmon's death comes as the city is reeling from what will likely be its most violent year on record.
Just hours before her demise, Mayor Jim Kenney held a press conference to address Philadelphia's record-breaking homicide rate. The mayor urged state lawmakers to allow the city to pass more stringent local gun control laws, which he believes would make a big dent in Philly's homicide rate.
