Philadelphia police have charged a man already facing a murder trial with five additional killings spanning a six year period.
Michael Blackston was arrested at Philadelphia police headquarters Saturday night and charged with five counts of murder, along with gun violations and other crimes.
Blackston, 29, who hails from the city’s Nicetown neighborhood, is accused of gunning down six people, the first of whom was killed in June 2011, police said. The most recent killing happened in September 2017. The murders occurred in the Nicetown, Germantown and North Philly neighborhoods.
They are:
- June 28, 2011: 26-year-old Saleem Garland was killed on the 1700 block of West Juniata Street.
- July 1, 2011: 22-year-old Gary Wilson was gunned down on the 5000 block of Wade Street.
- July 30, 2011: 22-year-old Kristin Freeman was shot on the 100 block of East Garfield Street. He would die the next day.
- Sept. 10, 2017: 20-year-old Branden Vincent was shot and killed along the 2100 block of Chelten Avenue.
- Sept. 22, 2017: 20-year-old Michael Cousette was gunned down on the 2500 block of North 17th Street.
Blackston has remained jailed without bail since his September 2018 arrest for a December 2011 murder, police said.
Fortunato Perri, Jr., his attorney in the December 2011 murder case, told NBC10 on Monday that he became aware of the five new murder counts that afternoon. Blackston is set to go on trial for the December 2011 killing next year.
Investigators didn’t have any further details about the arrest or the killings or how they honed in on Blackston for the other five murders.
