Eric Flores, a 50-year-old Hispanic/Latino male from Philadelphia, was killed on January 28, 2021, inside Al-Madinah Traders on the 3600 block of Germantown Avenue in the city’s Tioga/Germantown area. That afternoon, shortly before 1:00 p.m., police were called after a passerby found two men shot inside the business. When officers arrived, they found Flores and 42-year-old Roy Caban suffering from fatal gunshot wounds.
Medics responded, but both men were pronounced dead at the scene.
The scene suggested a sudden and violent attack inside the store. Early reporting described one victim as having been shot in the head and the other as having been shot twice in the face. Police initially treated the case as a double homicide, with few public answers about who had entered the business, what led up to the shooting, or whether the men had been targeted. Flores was identified as a Philadelphia resident who lived on Marshall Street, and his death became part of an especially violent opening month of 2021 in Philadelphia.
As the investigation developed, authorities began connecting the double homicide to a broader string of shootings and robberies in Pennsylvania and Delaware. The suspect who emerged was Keith Gibson, a Philadelphia-born man who had been released from prison in Delaware after serving time for a prior homicide-related conviction. Investigators later said Gibson was linked to the killings of Flores and Caban through ballistics evidence, with the gun tied to the store shooting also connected to other crimes attributed to him.
Police eventually alleged that Flores and Caban were among multiple victims in Gibson’s 2021 crime spree. In addition to the January 28 double homicide, Gibson was accused in Philadelphia of killing his mother, Christine Gibson, in February 2021, and Dunkin’ manager Christine Lugo in June 2021. He was also prosecuted in Delaware for the murders of Leslie Ruiz-Basilio and Ronald Wright, along with robberies and attempted murders connected to the same period.
Gibson was arrested on June 8, 2021, in Wilmington, Delaware, after a Rite Aid robbery in which a tracking device helped police locate him. At the time of his arrest, authorities reported that he had a firearm, ammunition, gloves, a mask, body armor, drugs, and stolen money. The arrest became a turning point, as investigators in Delaware and Pennsylvania compared evidence from several scenes and built cases around surveillance footage, ballistics, and other physical evidence.
In Delaware, Gibson was convicted in November 2023 of two murders and numerous related charges connected to the killings of Leslie Ruiz-Basilio and Ronald Wright, as well as other violent offenses. In March 2024, he was sentenced to seven life terms without the possibility of parole, plus nearly 300 additional years. That sentence did not resolve the Philadelphia cases, including the deaths of Eric Flores and Roy Caban; authorities said Gibson would still face prosecution in Pennsylvania for the Philadelphia killings.
By 2024, Gibson was in proceedings connected to the Philadelphia murder charges. During a Philadelphia court hearing, he was held in contempt after repeated outbursts while witnesses were testifying. The Pennsylvania case was reported as involving multiple Philadelphia victims, including Flores and Caban, and Gibson remained the accused suspect tied to their deaths. No separate suspect has been publicly identified in the killing of Eric Flores, and the available reporting centers on Gibson as the man authorities linked to the double homicide through the larger investigation.
