A former city worker for Philadelphia has pleaded guilty to fatally shooting her boyfriend while the couple was in a moving car.
Martina Westcott entered her plea Monday to third-degree murder among other charges in connection to the death of Terrell Bruce, 33.
The 28-year-old shot Bruce in the head during an argument in December 2016, prosecutors alleged. Bruce was driving along Park Line Drive in West Mount Airy at the time.
Bruce lost control of his dark-colored Ford Expedition after being shot. The sport utility vehicle crashed into another car and flipped onto its side. He was found a few feet from the truck.
Westcott fled the scene and turned herself in to police the next day. The Central High School and University of Pennsylvania graduate, who recently pursued a master's in public health at Thomas Jefferson University, apparently ran to her mother's house in nearby Roxborough. She later confessed to the shooting, police sources said at the time.
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Bruce was a prominent real-estate agent with RE/MAX in Marlton, New Jersey, and Westcott worked for the city's Department of Public Health.
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Born and raised in the Mt. Airy section of Philadelphia, Bruce was a graduate of Roxborough High School and studied at Drexel and La Salle Universities. He continued to help out his community even after becoming a real estate agent, according to his twin brother Brandon Bruce.
"He wanted to be on the front lines of having people be able to afford their first homes," Brandon Bruce told NBC10 in 2016. "He dealt with a lot of first home buyers. That's the people he saw needed probably the most guidance in terms of financial literacy. People who didn't have good credit, he would coach them. He did it pro bono."
