Keenan Clifford Mason, a 23-year-old Black/African American male from Chester, Pennsylvania, was shot on the night of January 26, 2020, and died two days later, on January 28, after being taken to Crozer-Chester Medical Center. The shooting happened around 8:45 p.m. near the Edgemont Ave Mart Deli on the 2000 block of Edgemont Avenue in Chester. Police found Mason badly wounded, reportedly lying near the doorway or on the street outside the store with a gunshot wound to the head.
Investigators recovered four shell casings near him, and although he was still alive when emergency responders arrived, the wound proved fatal.
Court records later described the killing as a retaliatory ambush rooted in a dispute from about a week earlier. According to testimony from Mason’s brother, Kareem Mason, Rashee Hunter had come to the brothers’ apartment above the deli to bag cocaine for distribution. Kareem said he noticed Hunter had a gun and told Keenan about it. Keenan, who had recently had a firearm taken from him, handled Hunter’s gun briefly and returned it, but Kareem said he had a bad feeling about the encounter. The next day, Kareem said he woke to the sound of a struggle on the back steps and saw Keenan with two other men robbing Hunter of the firearm at gunpoint. Kareem believed that taking the gun from Hunter could lead to trouble because Hunter was from the west side of the city.
Surveillance footage and phone evidence became central to the case. Delaware County Detective Timothy Deery testified that video from the area showed Gregory Artwell walking on Edgmont Avenue and talking on a cellphone shortly before the shooting. Investigators identified Rashee Hunter as the shooter in the video, wearing an oversized tan winter coat with a fur-lined hood. The shooter was seen coming around the corner on 21st Street, firing, and then heading north on Edgmont Avenue. The footage also showed Kyree Washington, one of the people allegedly involved in robbing Hunter, retrieving a handgun from Mason before police arrived.
Investigators alleged that Artwell helped Hunter locate Mason and time the ambush. Phone records showed Hunter and Artwell were in contact for about six and a half minutes directly before the shooting. Prosecutors argued that Artwell appeared to be searching Edgmont Avenue for Mason and then alerted Hunter when Mason left his apartment, allowing Hunter to approach at the exact moment Mason reached the deli area. FBI phone-location evidence placed both men’s phones in the area at the time of the shooting. Investigators also found that 17 calls between Hunter and Artwell from the day of the shooting had been manually deleted from Hunter’s phone call logs.
Additional evidence pointed to Hunter’s awareness of the investigation after the shooting. Court records said Hunter’s phone had searched or visited news sites reporting on the shooting multiple times between January 27 and February 16, 2020, and had also searched the phrase “Rashee Hunter suspect.” A witness who was with Hunter that day testified that Hunter left for about 20 minutes around the time of the shooting wearing a coat similar to the one seen in surveillance footage. When Hunter returned, the witness said he made a statement suggesting the shooting was payback for people who robbed others. The witness also knew that Hunter’s gun had been taken about a week before Mason was killed.
Rashee Hunter was arrested and prosecuted as the gunman. He was convicted of first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit first-degree murder, and carrying a firearm without a license. In 2023, he received the mandatory sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole for Mason’s murder. Gregory Artwell was prosecuted as Hunter’s co-conspirator and was found guilty of conspiracy to commit third-degree murder. He was sentenced to 11 to 22 years in prison, and in October 2024 the Pennsylvania Superior Court affirmed his judgment of sentence, rejecting his challenge to the sufficiency of the evidence. The appellate court agreed that the evidence supported the conclusion that Artwell and Hunter acted together in what the trial court described as a deliberate hunt and gunning down of Mason.
