Khunus Alexander Blackwell, a 43-year-old Black / African American male, was killed on the night of June 21, 2016, in Chester, Pennsylvania, during a burst of gun violence that police believed may have been tied to another shooting that happened less than an hour earlier. What began as a late-night attack in one part of the city soon appeared to stretch into a second scene, leaving one man dead and two others wounded.
Police said the first shooting was reported around 10:36 p.m.
in the 1000 block of Butler Street. A 35-year-old man and a 29-year-old man were standing with friends on the sidewalk when an unidentified gunman arrived and opened fire. Both wounded men were taken to Crozer Chester Medical Center in private vehicles and were reported to be in stable condition.
Not long afterward, just after 11:00 p.m., another shooting unfolded in the 200 block of West 21st Street. Blackwell was walking to his car when he was shot in the back. He was taken to the hospital, but he did not survive. Online memorial information identifies him as having been lost to gun violence that same date in Chester, and loved ones later remembered him as a husband, father, son, uncle, and someone with an outgoing, lively spirit.
Investigators believed the two shootings may have been connected because two of the victims reportedly had a family relationship. The public reports did not identify the wounded men by name, did not name the gunman, and did not describe a confirmed motive. Police treated the shootings as possibly related, but the available online reporting did not establish exactly why the victims were targeted or whether Blackwell himself was the intended target.
No arrest, charge, trial, or conviction was found in the online sources reviewed. The suspect in the Butler Street shooting was described only as an unidentified gunman, and the reporting on Blackwell's fatal shooting did not provide a suspect name. Authorities asked anyone with information to contact Chester Detective Charles Bothwell or Delaware County Criminal Investigation Division Detective Michael Jay, indicating that the case remained under investigation at the time of the public reports.
