On the evening of April 8, 2026, Gardy Joseph, a 51-year-old man, was fatally shot in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. The incident occurred around 11:30 p.m. in the front vestibule of a building located in the 1300 block of Derry Street. Responding to reports of a shooting, police officers discovered Joseph unresponsive with a gunshot wound to his abdomen.
Originally from North Miami Beach, Florida, and born in Bariadelle, D'Haiti, Gardy Joseph had been working at a GIANT grocery store in
Carlisle. A coworker had dropped him off at his building around 11 p.m. that night. Shortly after, as he was checking his mail inside the building's vestibule, he was confronted by an assailant.
The investigation into Joseph's death quickly focused on a suspect captured on surveillance footage from nearby businesses. The footage showed a masked individual, later identified as 19-year-old Luis Perez Jr., walking past the building before turning around to approach Joseph. Perez allegedly robbed Joseph at gunpoint, striking him with the handgun before shooting him. Additional surveillance footage from the area tracked Perez's escape route, which led investigators to a home where he had family.
On April 16, 2026, the Harrisburg Police announced the arrest of Luis Perez Jr. in connection with the fatal shooting. He faces a number of serious charges, including first- and second-degree murder, robbery, tampering with evidence, possession of a firearm prohibited, and carrying a firearm without a license. Investigators found a spent 9mm casing near Joseph's body. The police stated that the motive for the attack was an attempted robbery.
