Suspect Showed Disturbing Signs Before Philadelphia Rampage, DA Says

As the streets outside his house echoed with bangs, Darryl Steplight thought the fireworks were on the eve of the Fourth of July. He quickly learned otherwise. A man in body armor and carrying an AR-15 style rifle had opened fire indiscriminately nearby, killing five and wounding two, including a 2-year-old.

The man arrested and charged with perpetrating the rampage was Kimbrady Carriker, whom Mr. Steplight had met the previous week.

The meeting was unremarkable, Mr. Steplight said, except for one curious detail: Mr. Carriker, wearing a green military vest, had introduced himself as a “town watchman.”

On Wednesday, two days after the mass shooting in southwest Philadelphia, the city was trying to understand what prompted such an unexplained outbreak of violence. Charged in the morning, Mr Carriker, 40, appeared on video in white overalls and offered terse answers as a magistrate read out the charges, which included murder, attempted murder and reckless endangerment. He was ordered held without bond.

At a press conference in the afternoon, prosecutors said people living with Mr Carriker had told investigators he had been “behaving abnormally” and “becoming increasingly restless” in recent days, even wearing his body armor inside the house. . A search of his home, said Robert Wainwright, an assistant district attorney, turned up a will written by Mr Carriker, dated June 23. Mr Wainwright did not say what was in the will.

Authorities said when Mr Carriker was arrested he had an AR-15 style rifle and a so-called ghost gun made from untraceable parts, although investigators have yet to determine how he got the firearms.

Prosecutors said the ghost gun was not fired during the shooting and a gun and ammunition were found during Mr. Carriker’s search. Mr Carriker was not licensed to own guns, prosecutors said.

Mr Wainwright said at least one of the seven people who shared a house with Mr Carriker had realized he was becoming more disturbed. But another prosecutor, Joanne Pescatore, said: “Their way of dealing with it was just to avoid it and not interfere with him.”

Pennsylvania does not have a “red flag” law, which allows families or law enforcement to request a court order to temporarily confiscate guns from people deemed a threat to themselves or others. But officials encouraged people to report any troubling behavior anyway, suggesting Mr Carriker could have gotten help if authorities knew about his behaviour. Following a 2004 felony conviction for carrying a gun without a license, Mr. Carriker had apparently spent his life largely off the radar of local law enforcement.

However, he was a familiar figure to his neighbors in the block of two-storey terraced houses where he had lived. They remembered him as friendly and sometimes helpful. “He never gave us a problem. He was always a nice guy,” says Bernard Mason, 53, who lives across the street. “We saw him in high heels and a dress a few times and didn’t give it a second thought, that’s his thing.”

Mr Carriker appeared in women’s clothing in some photos on his Facebook page, possibly contributing to confusion over his gender identity in the first hours after his arrest. The district attorney’s office said on Wednesday they had not seen any information suggesting he considers himself anything but male.

It was on social media that Mr. Carriker’s state of mind was perhaps most visible to people outside his home. His Facebook page suggests a politics of libertarian shadows, with memes belittling President Biden alongside posts in support of the Black Lives Matter movement, and therefore all support for unrestricted gun rights.

In the days leading up to the mass shooting, his Facebook activity — posts about being followed by evil spirits, alongside articles about efforts to address gun violence in Philadelphia — may have reflected the turmoil prosecutors described.

“But we prayed to our God and posted a guard day and night to face this threat,” read a message from last Saturday, two days before the shooting. It was followed by an excerpt from the Book of Isaiah: “To save thee I will send an army against Babylon,” read a verse. “I will break down the city gates; and the outcry of her people will turn into howling.”

Jon Hurdle reporting contributed. Kirsten Noyes contributed research.