On a Saturday afternoon in Willingboro, New Jersey, 14-year-old Jesse Everett was at a Phillips 66 gas station on Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Drive. It was August 21, 2021, and Everett was in the driver's seat of a Honda Civic, accompanied by two other individuals. The car they were in had been reported stolen the previous day. As they were at the gas pumps, another vehicle pulled into the station and parked near them.
A man, later identified as 22-year-old Tamir Phillips of
Bensalem, Pennsylvania, exited the passenger side of the second vehicle. He approached the stolen car, confronted Everett, and fired a single shot, striking the teenager in the head. The other two occupants of the car with Everett were unharmed. Phillips then got back into the car he arrived in, which was driven by his girlfriend, 29-year-old Chelsea Holman of Willingboro, and they fled the scene. Everett was rushed to Virtua Willingboro Hospital and subsequently airlifted to Cooper University Medical Center in Camden, where he was pronounced dead later that afternoon.
Investigators quickly determined that the shooting was not a random act of violence. The investigation revealed that the stolen Honda Civic belonged to a friend of Phillips, and he had been allowed to use it frequently. It is believed that Phillips shot Everett in retaliation for the theft of the vehicle. Authorities located and arrested Phillips on the Monday following the shooting. He was charged with first-degree murder and weapons offenses.
Chelsea Holman was also taken into custody and faced charges of hindering apprehension and obstruction of justice for her role in driving Phillips to and from the crime scene. While Phillips was held in the Burlington County Jail, Holman was released after being charged. The incident was a tragic escalation of a car theft, culminating in the death of a young teenager.
