In the midst of an argument while driving through northwest Philadelphia on the afternoon of December 27, 2016, 33-year-old Terrell Bruce, a male real estate agent, was fatally shot. He was behind the wheel of his Ford Expedition in the Germantown neighborhood when his passenger and ex-girlfriend, 27-year-old Martina Westcott, shot him in the head. The vehicle then crashed into another car and overturned.
When first responders arrived at the scene on the 500 block of West Walnut Lane, they initially believed it was just a severe car accident but soon discovered Bruce was unresponsive with a gunshot wound. Witnesses reported seeing a woman flee from the crashed SUV.
The day after the incident, Martina Westcott, a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania who worked for the city's Department of Public Health, surrendered to the police, accompanied by her mother. She confessed to the shooting and was subsequently charged with murder and weapons offenses. According to her statement to detectives, the fatal argument with Bruce, with whom she had a tumultuous relationship, was about having a baby. Westcott claimed Bruce became loud with her because she did not want to have a child, and in fear, she felt a gun under her foot, picked it up, closed her eyes, and fired, hoping only to scare him. Prosecutors, however, noted that Bruce had broken up with Westcott a week before the shooting. After the shooting, she fled the scene, discarded her jacket over a bridge, and went to her mother's house.
The tragic day of Terrell Bruce's death was also the birthday of his younger brother, Nathaniel Kirkland, who had died in 2009. Bruce was a dedicated community member who had even started a foundation in his late brother's name. In June 2018, Martina Westcott pleaded guilty to third-degree murder and related charges. A judge had previously ruled that her initial statement to police could not be used at trial, which led prosecutors to offer a plea deal for the lesser charge instead of pursuing a first-degree murder conviction, which would have carried a mandatory life sentence. Her attorney stated that she was 'extremely remorseful' for her actions. Westcott faced a sentence of up to 57 years in prison for her role in the death of Terrell Bruce.
