Taquille Anthony Fobbs was a 21-year-old Black male from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, whose life ended in the early morning hours of July 3, 2015. He lived on the 1900 block of Brunner Street, in the same part of the city where he was spending time with friends before gunfire broke out. What had been a late-night gathering in Philadelphia's Tioga-Nicetown area turned into a scene of panic, injury, and loss just before 2:30 a.m.
Police were called to the area after reports of a person with
a gun. According to Philadelphia Police information, four people were shot on the 1800 block of West Juniata Street. Taquille was found suffering from a gunshot wound and was rushed to Temple University Hospital. Despite the effort to save him, he died that morning. A second victim, an 18-year-old man, was shot multiple times and taken to Temple University Hospital in critical condition. A third victim, a 24-year-old woman, suffered graze wounds and was taken to Albert Einstein Medical Center for treatment. A fourth victim, 25-year-old Darren Ryan, was shot in the torso and pronounced dead at the scene.
Taquille's mother, Stacey Marks, later described him as a normal, everyday young man who was shy, a little standoffish, and silly, but someone who gave her no problems. She said one of his friends called her after the shooting to tell her that her son had been shot and was at Temple. She recalled getting up, telling her husband that “Quill” had been shot, and heading to the hospital. Shortly after 3:00 a.m., Taquille was pronounced dead. For his family, the killing did not end with the crime scene; it became a lasting absence, with his mother saying the person who shot him had destroyed her.
The investigation appears to have been difficult from the beginning. Although several people were present and three other victims survived, police reportedly did not receive a useful suspect description. Taquille's mother explained that when bullets start flying, people run rather than stop to look at the shooter. That lack of a clear description left investigators asking the public for help, and the City of Philadelphia offered up to $20,000 for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person responsible.
No publicly available online source reviewed reported an arrest, named suspect, charges, trial, or conviction in Taquille Fobbs's killing. Philadelphia Police list the case as open, and the available information indicates investigators continued seeking tips from anyone who might know who opened fire that morning. The case remains tied not only to Taquille's death, but also to the broader shooting that killed Darren Ryan and wounded two others, leaving families with grief and unanswered questions about who was responsible.
