SOUTHWEST PHILADELPHIA - July 26, 2009 (WPVI) -- A man's lifelong friend was shot to death Saturday night in Southwest Philadelphia.
Sunday, the man and a woman went to place flowers at the scene where his best friend had died. They were both shot. He became the second homicide victim in as many nights on the same street corner.
Homicide detectives confirmed to Action News that Lamar Jones was dropping flowers off at his friends memorial when he and a woman were shot.
Police have no suspects. There have been no arrests.
"My son just died for no reason," Jones' mother told Action News Sunday night. "These boys just came out from nowhere and shot my son up."
A nearby police officer rushed Jones to the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, but he did not survive the shooting.
Jones, the father of 2 girls, was planning on moving to North Carolina in a month, in an effort to leave the violence of his Philadelphia neighborhood behind. Jones' family says he had been working 2 jobs in order t make the move happen.
"We don't know how we're going to say, 'Your daddy can't put you to bed tonight," said Jones' mother Betty Coli. "And that's wrong. These little girls are going to grow up without a father and these people are going to walk around here doing the same thin."
Police won't speculate why the two were shot. Officers spent most of Sunday questioning witnesses.
Coli told Action News police said they were looking into the possibility that he was killed because the shooters might have feared Jones would retaliate for the murder of his best friend Shalomar Maquilkin, who was gunned down Saturday night.
The woman who was with Jones, Maquilkin's girlfriend, was also shot in the incident Sunday afternoon. She was treated at the hospital and is expected to make a complete recovery.
