Philadelphia Man Shot, Killed on Jail Grounds After Release

A Philadelphia inmate was shot to death by an as-yet unidentified person in a dark vehicle as he waited for his ride home Thursday morning.

Rodney Hargrove, 20, was released from the Curran-Fromhold Correctional Facility in Philadelphia on a $200,000 bond for theft and weapons charges Thursday morning. As he sat and waited approximately 45 minutes for his ride home at a SEPTA bus stop across the street from the main gate, a driver in a “dark-colored vehicle” drove through a reportedly open security arm at the entrance, firing on Hargrove, authorities told local NBC affiliate Channel 10.

No cameras at bus stop but officials are reviewing any footage from prison property.

Big question: One security officer was working during shooting. Dark car drove through an open security arm to shoot victim.

Arms open manually. Why was arm open? @NBCPhiladelphia pic.twitter.com/dyEPnQj86X

— Miguel Martinez-Valle (@MiguelMValle) March 18, 2021

The young man attempted to flee across the street and back into the jail, but the vehicle followed him onto the jail grounds through the aforementioned checkpoint. Medics pronounced Hargrove dead at the scene, with multiple bullet wounds across his body. “It appears that the shooter or shooters were in very close proximity to this 20-year-old victim when the shots were fired,” Philadelphia Police Chief Inspector Scott Small told the reporters.

A correctional offer near the guard post claimed not to have seen anything, and the shooting seems to have taken place outside the view of the primary facility cameras. The Department of Prisons are looking for any possible footage from other cameras near the scene.

Channel 10 reporter Miguel Martinez-Valle took to social media to question the allegedly unsecured entrance. “Big question: One security officer was working during shooting. Dark car drove through an open security arm to shoot victim,” he tweeted. “Arms open manually. Why was arm open?”

Motive for the shooting remains unknown, but it is far from the first in what could be Philadelphia’s bloodiest year. During a briefing about gun violence in the city on Wednesday, Mayor Jim Kenney said that “2021 is on track to be the most violent year we’ve experienced in our lifetimes.”