The trial of the man who shot IRS repossession agent Jamie King is underway. Jabril Ali, whose spent several months on the lam after the night of the shooting, is charged with attempted murder of King who suffered gunshot wounds to the torso and head which cause a portion of his skull to require removal. In addition to other testimony, Jamie testified on his memory of the tragic event that changed the lives of him and his family forever.
‘Something was wrong’: Chester tow truck driver tells of moments before he was shot
CHESTER – A Philadelphia man has been held for court on attempted murder and related charges in the May 3 shooting of a tow truck driver outside the International Recovery Systems tow yard on 2nd Street.
Jabril N. Ali is charged with attempted murder for the May 3 shooting of a tow truck driver in Chester.
Jabril N. Ali, 26, was also held on charges including aggravated assault, theft, terroristic threats, and firearms and drug offenses following a preliminary hearing before Magisterial District Judge Dawn Vann.
The victim, James King, testified that he had towed a red Nissan Altima out of Philadelphia that night on a repossession. He said the Nissan was parked in front of the Blue Martini when he took possession of it and that a person came out of the bar as he was driving away, but he did not speak to anyone.
‘Feeling in my stomach’
King told Assistant District Attorney Jason Harmon he was sitting in his truck parked in front of the tow yard gates about 12:44 a.m. when he noticed a car driving up and down the block.
He got out to lock the gate and had returned to his truck when two cars pulled up in the front parking lot simultaneously, one next to his driver’s side window and the other perpendicular in front of him.
“I got asked, ‘Where’s my car at?’ ” King said. “I said, ‘It’s in the yard behind me,’ and then I put the truck in drive because I could tell something was up, like I just got the feeling in my stomach that something was wrong and I just wanted to get out of there, and I don’t remember anything after that.”
King said he woke up in the hospital and initially thought he was in a motorcycle accident until his wife told him he had been shot in the chest and head. He said he woke up with tubes coming out of his chest and learned half of his skull had been removed.
King told defense attorney Anna Hinchman that the car that had pulled up next to him was driven by an older African American man with a beard and a woman was sitting next to him in the passenger seat.
The car in front of him had two middle-aged African American men in it, King said. He identified Ali as the passenger of that vehicle and said he was the one who asked where the car was. He said Ali’s hands were under the sweatshirt he was wearing and that he never saw a gun.
Also at the scene
Vann also heard from Reymar Fisher, who owns a vehicle rental company in Philadelphia.
Fisher said he had rented the Nissan to Ali, but the vehicle was towed to the IRS lot in Chester. He said he did not know why it was towed, but he was able to track the Nissan there using an Airtag and informed Ali of its location.
Fisher said he came to the lot that night and pulled up next to King, then rolled his window down and asked where the Nissan was.
“He told me that the car was back there and to give him a second and stepped back into his vehicle,” Fisher said. “I rolled my window back up, I heard gunshots, I pulled off.”
Fisher said he did not see where the gunshots were coming from and did not see anyone else there. He did remember another car was present, did not remember what that car was.
“I was just trying to get out of there because my life was in danger,” he said.
Detective on stand
Chester Detective Rhaheem Blandon testified that he was called to the scene and found King’s truck had crashed into a pole, striking a generator. The interior of the truck was bloody and he recovered a fired cartridge casing from the truck’s bed, he said.
King was on his way to Crozer-Chester Medical Center for treatment as Blandon worked the scene, he said, recovering surveillance video from IRS.
Blandon went through some of that video Tuesday, describing images of King locking the gates, the two cars pulling up and King’s truck pulling off as the shooter fires. A second video that recorded the interior of King’s truck and the truck’s front view was also played, in which audio of the shooting was also captured.
Blandon told Hinchman he had interviewed Fisher and his passenger, as well as the driver of the vehicle Ali allegedly arrived in. Blandon said he tried to have that driver appear in court, but learned he had moved from his last known address.
Blandon acknowledged he could not tell from the videos that Ali was the shooter or what kind of gun was used, and that no firearm had been recovered in the case. He said on redirect that heroin was recovered from the towed Nissan.
Police previously said Ali was identified as a suspect in May through surveillance footage and witness interviews. He was taken into custody by U.S. Marshals in late June inside a residence in the 1500 block of South Cleveland Street in Philadelphia.
Hinchman unsuccessfully argued against the robbery, theft, terroristic threats, firearms and possession of a controlled substance charges. Harmon withdrew charges for a second robbery count, false imprisonment and possession of a controlled substance with intent to deliver.
Vann dismissed those three charges, but held Ali on all others. He remains in custody at the county jail in Concord on $1 million bail. Ali is scheduled for formal arraignment Oct. 4 at the Delaware County Courthouse in Media.
Author, Alex Rose | Reporter
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