Two men and a woman caught on camera flagging down a cab in South Philadelphia earlier this month before police say they robbed and shot the driver are now facing charges in the incident.
Syheed Wilson, Kierston Carroll and Michael Jones, all 19, are each charged with aggravated assault, robbery, conspiracy, illegal gun possession, attempted theft and related offenses. Wilson and Carroll, who both live on Marston Street near Tasker -- around the corner from where the shooting and robbery took place -- were identified and arrested last week after detectives received a tip about them. Jones, of Windsor Street near 59th in Southwest Philadelphia, was captured on Saturday on Torresdale Avenue near Levick Street in Tacony.
Police say the trio flagged down a cab driver by Alex Destin, 38, about 3:15 a.m. Feb. 6 after leaving the Broad Street Line subway at Tasker-Morris. They asked Destin to drive them to 28th and Tasker, and when they arrived there, police said, Wilson and Jones both pulled out guns and demanded, "Give me all the money you got." Police said both men then fired shots at Destin, wounding him in the shoulder, before Destin crashed the cab and all three escaped.
They wound up not stealing anything from the driver, police said.
Destin, who spent a few days hospitalized for his injuries, recounted the harrowing moments he looked down the barrels of two guns in an interview with NBC10 earlier this month.
"The guy pointed a gun in my face, told me, 'Don't move,' and he shot me," Destin said.
"I have a lot of pain, but I say thank you, God, I still survived," he added.
Surveillance video from a deli near 24th and Morris streets, where the cab crashed after the shooting, shows a man waiting on two others at the corner five minutes after the crash and two minutes before police arrived at the scene. The trio captured on that video is believed to be the suspects.
Destin, who has a wife and four children, still had blood on his shoes, stitches above his eye and a bullet lodged in his arm at the time of his release from the hospital, when he spoke with NBC10.
"Thanks to God he's still alive," said Destin's sister-in-law Ginia at the time. "He's in pain but he's alive."
Wilson and Carroll both faced arraignment last week, and a judge held Wilson on $350,000 bail and Carroll on $150,000, court records show. Jones was arraigned Sunday and held on $750,000 bail. Wilson and Carroll are set to appear for preliminary hearings March 10, and Jones is scheduled to appear March 15. All three remain in custody at city jails, according to court documents.
