Backpack Murder Suspect in Court

A man accused of shooting and killing a young father all over a backpack is due in court today.

Tyreek McNeil, 22, is accused of gunning down Jose Gabino-Aparicio as he walked along the 800 block of Watkins Street in South Philadelphia in the early hours of Sept. 26.

Since his arrest in the days after the murder, McNeil has remained in jail awaiting Wednesday's preliminary hearing on murder, robbery and weapons charges, according to court records.

Investigators say that McNeil shot and killed Gabino-Aparicio as he returned home.

"The reality is that my husband will never walk through that door. Our youngest son will never know his father," said Gabino-Aparicio's wife Dionica Hernandez in the hours after his death.

Hernandez says her 22-year-old husband was walking home from work with a friend when they stopped at his brother-in-law's bakery at 8th and Watkins Streets to get bread for the family's breakfast.

"He would always go by there to get us some bread so we would have enough food to eat," she told NBC10's Nefertiti Jaquez in Spanish.

As they left, the men were confronted by a man on a bike who demanded Gabino-Aparicio's backpack and cellphone.

The men got into a struggle and Gabino-Aparicio was shot three times in the back, according to police.

Tyreek McNeil, 21, is accused of shooting and killing Jose Gabino Aparicio on Sept. 26, 2013.

He was rushed to Thomas Jefferson University Hospital. Hernandez says she rushed to be at her husband's side, but didn't make it there before he died.

Following the shooting, the suspect left the bike he was riding on. Police didn't say if evidence from that bike positively linked McNeil to the crime.

McNeil is no stranger to the law.

According to online court records, McNeil pleaded guilty to a weapons charge in 2010 and received two years probation as well as counseling and being ordered to obtain his GED.

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