In the evening hours of January 23, 2018, a tragedy unfolded on Mosley Court in Chester, Pennsylvania, that cut short a young life. Chadease Coleman, a 20-year-old Black or African American male, was discovered inside his white Kia SUV with multiple gunshot wounds. The scene was made even more harrowing by the presence of two small children in the backseat of the vehicle. When police responded to reports of a shooting at approximately 8:30 p.m., they found Coleman in the front seat.
He was pronounced dead at the scene.
The investigation that followed was a joint effort between the Chester City Police Department and the Delaware County Criminal Investigation Division. Detectives processing the crime scene collected evidence, including numerous spent shell casings of two different calibers surrounding the driver's side of the SUV, suggesting the intensity of the attack. By analyzing video surveillance from the area, investigators were able to piece together the events of that night. They concluded that Coleman had been the victim of a robbery that escalated into a fatal shooting.
More than a year later, in April 2019, authorities announced a significant development in the case with the arrest of 30-year-old Byron Sean Bryant, also of Chester. He was charged with a range of serious offenses, including criminal homicide, first, second, and third-degree murder, robbery, and various firearms violations. The District Attorney's office alleged that Bryant, along with others, was responsible for robbing and then killing Chadease Coleman in front of his children. His preliminary hearing was scheduled for May of that year. However, despite the arrest and the charges brought against Bryant, the pursuit of justice for Chadease Coleman's death would later take another turn, as reports indicated that two individuals were ultimately acquitted in connection with the 2018 murder.
