On a September evening in 2017, Gerard Grandzol, a 38-year-old male, was returning to his home in the Spring Garden neighborhood of Philadelphia after spending time at a local park with his two-year-old daughter and the family dog. After parking his vehicle on the 1500 block of Melon Street, he was suddenly confronted by two individuals. The assailants, later identified as brothers Maurice and Marvin Roberts, demanded his wallet and his car keys at gunpoint.
Grandzol complied by handing
over his wallet, but he hesitated to give up his car because his young daughter was still secured in her car seat in the back. He pleaded with his attackers to allow him to remove his child from the vehicle before they took it. It was at this moment that one of the brothers, 16-year-old Marvin Roberts, shot Grandzol twice in the face at point-blank range. The two assailants then fled the scene, leaving Grandzol fatally wounded on the pavement just steps from his front door. Neighbors rushed to his aid, but he succumbed to his injuries at Hahnemann University Hospital later that night. His daughter, who witnessed the entire event, was found physically unharmed in the backseat of the car.
The investigation moved quickly, aided by surveillance footage that captured the brutal and senseless act. Within days, police arrested 21-year-old Maurice Roberts and his 16-year-old brother, Marvin. Marvin Roberts, the alleged shooter, was charged as an adult with a litany of offenses including murder, robbery, and carjacking. The evidence against the brothers was described as overwhelming, including the surveillance video and their own confessions to the botched carjacking.
In the legal proceedings that followed, both brothers ultimately took plea deals. In January 2019, Maurice Roberts pleaded guilty to third-degree murder, robbery, and conspiracy. He was sentenced to 25 to 50 years in prison. The following month, his younger brother, Marvin Roberts, pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and other related charges. For his role as the gunman who took a father's life in front of his child, he was sentenced to a term of 35 years to life in prison. The case sent shockwaves through the community, who remembered Grandzol as a beloved neighbor, a community activist, and a devoted father to his two young daughters, one of whom was just a newborn at the time of his murder.
