On the morning of January 25, 2023, Chester Police officers responded to a report of a suspicious person behind a home on the 1000 block of Baldwin Street in Chester, Pennsylvania. There, on the rear steps of a row house, they found Mekhi Harrison, an 18-year-old Black / African American man, unresponsive. Paramedics soon arrived and determined that the young man, known to friends as “Twin,” had suffered a fatal gunshot wound to the chest.
He was pronounced dead at the scene.
Investigators quickly determined that Mekhi’s death was not a random act. An autopsy revealed he had been struck by a single .40-caliber bullet that passed through his right arm and into his chest, transecting his aorta. Detectives found two matching cartridge casings in a grassy area behind a fence, leading them to believe Mekhi was shot while trying to climb over it. An examination of his phone showed that in the early morning hours before his body was found, he had been texting and using FaceTime to arrange a meeting with a teenage girl.
The investigation led to the arrests of two local teens: Alejandra “V” Pahola Barrios-Ortiz, who was 15 at the time, and Ahshir “Shir” Javone Lloyd, who was 17. According to authorities, Barrios-Ortiz admitted that she and Lloyd had developed a plan to lure Mekhi to the location. She was to draw him there with text messages while Lloyd waited in a nearby breezeway to shoot him. The alleged motive for the killing was a post Mekhi had made on an Instagram page that "roasted" couples, featuring a picture of Barrios-Ortiz and Lloyd.
Both teenagers were initially charged as adults with criminal homicide, conspiracy, and related firearms offenses. In February 2024, Alejandra Barrios-Ortiz entered an open guilty plea to a charge of third-degree murder. Her case was then transferred to juvenile court for disposition.
In March 2026, Ahshir Javone Lloyd pleaded guilty to third-degree murder, conspiracy, and carrying a firearm without a license. Three months later, in June 2026, a judge sentenced Lloyd to serve 20 to 40 years in a state prison for his role in Mekhi Harrison’s death.
