Police in New Jersey arrested a man accused of shooting and killing a 21-year-old woman after he was ejected from a Northeast Philadelphia bar.
Anthony Nelson, 47, was arrested Wednesday in Atlantic City on a warrant for the killing of Jailene Holton, Philadelphia Police Department Sgt. Eric Gripp said. Nelson is awaiting extradition and will be charged with murder and related offenses, Gripp said.
A U.S. Marshals task force captured Nelson at an Atlantic City casino, Marshal Eric Gartner, of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, said.
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Holton was serving as a sober driver on June 28 while on a night out with friends when a patron angry over not being allowed to use a pool table was thrown out of the bar and opened fire from hundreds of feet away, police said.
The 21-year-old woman died after being shot as the other customer fired at least 15 shots into Philly Bar and Restaurant along Welsh Road in Northeast Philadelphia, according to police.
"She was just a good kid... she was trying to get her life together, you know, and find herself in life," her father Jason Holton told NBC10's Karen Hua the morning after the killing. "It just sucks."
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Witnesses told police that three men caused a disturbance inside the bar shortly before the shooting and were escorted out of the bar, Philadelphia Police Chief Inspector Scott Small said in the aftermath of the shooting.
She lost her life "for absolutely nothing," Philadelphia Homicide Lt. Daniel Brooks said.
At least one witness told police the argument stemmed from usage of a pool table, Brooks said. The eventual shooter claimed he wasn't permitted to use a pool table over his race, but the manager ensured him it was only because a scheduled pool league was using the table.
Bar staff then escorted the irate man from the bar.
"That's when he walked, we believe, to a vehicle that was a black or dark pickup truck and that's when the 15 shots were fired," Small said.
Police and medics found Holton on the floor with a gunshot wound to the head, Small said. Doctors attempted emergency surgery on the woman, but she died at the hospital.
"We don't believe at all that she was the intended target," Small said.
Holton's funeral is planned for Thursday.
"Our community is deeply diminished by the utterly appalling and senseless loss of Jailene, who held such great promise for a tremendous future," Gartner said. "Our hope is that the quick capture of this heinous perpetrator will bring some comfort to the Holton family."
There are additional resources for people or communities that have endured gun violence in Philadelphia. Further information can be found here.
