October 18, 2023
SOURCE/PHILADELPHIA POLICE DEPARTMENT
Authorities have raised the reward for additional information about last week's deadly airport garage shooting to $276,000. Philadelphia Police Officer Richard Mendez was killed in the incident and his partner Raul Ortiz was wounded.
Philadelphia authorities are still on the hunt for additional suspects six days after a shooting in an airport garage left one police officer dead and another wounded. The reward for information related to the incident increased to $276,000 on Tuesday.
On Monday, police arrested 18-year-old Yobranny Martinez Fernandez in Cherry Hill, New Jersey in connection with last week's deadly shooting inside the Terminal D parking garage at Philadelphia International Airport. Officer Richard Mendez was killed in the incident, while his partner Raul Ortiz was wounded. Ortiz was released from Thomas Jefferson University Hospital over the weekend after being treated for an arm injury.
Police have not determined whether Martinez Fernandez fired the shots that killed Mendez and injured Ortiz. Another 18-year-old named Jesus Herman Madera Duran died at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia after being dropped off there the night of the shooting; investigators believe Madera Duran's death is connected to the airport shooting.
Investigators are still searching for at least two additional accomplices in the shooting.
As the hunt for those suspects continues, City Councilmember Kenyatta Johnson has contributed an additional $10,000 to the total reward, 6 ABC reported.
The incident occurred last Thursday shortly after Mendez and Ortiz reported to work around 11 p.m. Police said the officers heard glass shatter in the Terminal D parking garage just off Arrivals Road and confronted a group of people attempting to break into a car when gunfire broke out.
Mendez was struck multiple times in the upper torso and later died at Penn Presbyterian Medical Center.
Authorities have since recovered a Dodge Charger and a Dodge Durango that they believe are connected to the shooting. The Durango, which was seen on surveillance video taken the night of the shooting, was later abandoned and set on fire in South Brunswick, New Jersey.
Anyone with information related to the shooting can call or text police at (215) 686-8477.
