Bryan Jones

Bryan Keith Jones, a 47-year-old Black man, was a lifelong resident of his family’s row home on West Rockland Street in Philadelphia’s Germantown neighborhood. According to a close friend, Bryan was a man who “had no beefs with anybody.” On the night of Friday, August 17, 2012, he was relaxing on his front porch with two of his sisters, his friend Harley Brunson, and others. The group was enjoying the evening after a kids’ party, listening to Motown and other oldies.

The pleasant gathering was shattered at 11:36 p.m. when a gunman appeared on the street and unleashed a barrage of bullets at the house. The sudden chaos sent everyone scrambling for safety. Bryan’s friend Harley saw a man in a red shirt and light pants just as the gunfire began. Bryan’s sister Diane, who was inside the house at the time, later described seeing a heavyset man in a polo shirt. As the shots rang out, Bryan was struck in the head.

When the shooting stopped, Harley Brunson found Bryan on the ground by the front door of the porch. He felt a faint heartbeat, but his friend was limp and surrounded by blood. A neighbor who was a nurse rushed over to help, but Bryan’s injury was too severe. Instead of waiting for an ambulance, police officers rushed him to Albert Einstein Medical Center in their patrol car, but he could not be saved.

Investigators recovered 16 bullet-casing markers from the street in front of the home. Family members, including his sister Diane, said they provided homicide detectives with potential leads in the days following the murder. Bryan Jones was the 226th person murdered in Philadelphia that year. As of September 2012, no arrests had been made, and his case remains unsolved.