A man who triggered an Amber Alert in Philadelphia as police searched for his 3-year-old son has now been charged with murdering the boy’s mother and grandmother.
Byron McDonald, 25, first shot to death Tamara Aikens, 50, on April 9 in a drive-by, before police found 25-year-old Morgan Braxton, Aikens’ daughter and the mother of McDonald’s son, also shot to death inside her Hunting Park home on April 12, the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office said in a press release.
McDonald was driving Braxton’s car when he drove by her mother’s home in North Philadelphia and fired multiple shots, the DA’s office said. On April 11, a missing persons report was filed for Braxton, and a day after that, after a family member told police they feared for Braxton’s safety because of her relationship with McDonald, police went inside and found her dead with gunshots to her head, prosecutors said.
Police then issued an Amber Alert for the couple’s child.
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Investigators later found McDonald's car near the Aloft Philadelphia Airport Hotel along the 4300 block of Island Avenue and smashed a window to search for clues. A SWAT Team, police and firefighters gathered around the hotel as a barricade situation was declared.
Police searched the hotel and found McDonald, his son and McDonald’s mother inside a room on the fifth floor.
The boy was unharmed and McDonald was taken into custody shortly before 4 p.m. Neither McDonald nor the woman were injured, police said. The child was later placed with a family member.
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McDonald was also charged with endangering the welfare of a child, possession with intent to deliver and conspiracy. A message to his lawyer was not immediately returned.
