Donald Dale, a 58-year-old Black male, was killed on Friday, January 28, 2022, in West Philadelphia. The shooting unfolded on Poplar Street, where police were called in the late afternoon for a report of a person shot. Officers found Dale suffering from multiple gunshot wounds, and he was taken to Penn Presbyterian Medical Center, where he died that same afternoon.
Public case information from Philadelphia’s unsolved-murders site says he lived on Poplar Street, placing the violence close to home.
The first news accounts described a chaotic scene tied to a landlord-tenant dispute. According to 6abc, police said two women were in custody after a confrontation over electricity being cut off to bedrooms in the building. Officials said the dispute escalated into gunfire and that one of the women shot the landlord multiple times. Dale was reportedly shot in front of his girlfriend, who fled to a bedroom, locked herself inside, and then escaped by jumping from a second-floor window before running several blocks to call police. Police said the two women answered the door when officers arrived and claimed there was no problem, but officers saw the wounded man slumped on the stairs and entered to render aid.
CBS Philadelphia reported the same day that a person of interest had been taken into custody, but no weapon had been recovered. Although those early reports pointed to people being detained after the shooting, the later Philadelphia Police unsolved-murders listing still presents Dale’s case as unsolved and asks anyone with information to contact the Homicide Unit or submit an anonymous tip. In the online sources reviewed, no named suspect, formal arrest record, specific criminal charges, trial outcome, plea, or conviction was located for Dale’s killing.
