Walter Martinez, a 22-year-old Hispanic / Latino male from Philadelphia, was killed in South Philadelphia on Sunday, October 4, 2009, in a shooting that unfolded before dawn near Seventh and McClellan streets. At about 4:20 a.m., witnesses were unloading a vehicle on the 700 block of McClellan Street when they saw several men arguing in Spanish near the corner of South Seventh and McClellan.
In the middle of that confrontation, one of the men pulled a gun and fired at close range.
Martinez was struck four times in the chest on the 1800 block of South Seventh Street. Police transported him from his nearby residence on the 600 block of McClellan Street to Thomas Jefferson University Hospital. He survived for several hours after the shooting, but died there at 8:43 a.m.
The killing was one of two recent unsolved South Philadelphia homicides reported at the time, and investigators were still searching for both a motive and the person responsible. The shooter was described only as a male about 5-foot-5 with a medium build, wearing a dark hoodie. The available reporting did not identify him by name and did not provide a fuller suspect description.
No arrests, charges, trial details, or convictions were found in the available online reporting. The case was described as unsolved, with Philadelphia police asking anyone with information to contact the Homicide Division.
