{"id":252461,"date":"2026-07-26T16:55:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-26T16:55:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/252461\/"},"modified":"2026-07-26T16:55:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-26T16:55:08","slug":"ags-statewide-investigating-grand-jury-recommends-charges-against-phila-man-his-3rd-murder-case-in-2023-homicide","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/252461\/","title":{"rendered":"AG\u2019s Statewide Investigating Grand Jury Recommends Charges Against Phila. Man \u2014 his 3rd Murder Case \u2014 in 2023 Homicide"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a> <\/p>\n

Attorney General Dave Sunday \u2014 in conjunction with the Philadelphia Police Department, U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, and the 53rd Statewide Investigating Grand Jury \u2014 announced charges against a man regarding a 2023 homicide in north Philadelphia.<\/p>\n

This is the third separate murder case \u2014 all being prosecuted by the Office of Attorney General \u2014 against 21-year-old Richard Pridgen<\/a>\u00a0stemming from 2023 killings.<\/p>\n

Regarding charges filed Wednesday, Pridgen is charged with shooting George Smith to death while Smith was standing in the 2400 block of North 17th Street on April 22, 2023.<\/p>\n

Pridgen, a member of the \u201cBackblock\u201d gang, is serving a federal prison sentence for another carjacking, and is charged with two other homicides in Philadelphia.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are public dangers, and then there is Richard Pridgen \u2014 for whom killing, stealing, and harming people is a way of life,\u201d Attorney General Sunday said. \u201cThanks to collaboration with our partners, and the diligence of the grand jurors, we have built yet another case that should keep him out of free society for the rest of his days.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cProtecting our communities from violent criminals is ATF\u2019s core mission,\u201d said Eric DeGree, Special Agent in Charge of the ATF Philadelphia Field Division. \u201cWorking with the Philadelphia Police Department and Pennsylvania Attorney General, and using ATF\u2019s unique forensic capabilities, we continue to take shooters and violent offenders off Philadelphia\u2019s streets and drive down the city\u2019s homicide rate.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cGeorge Smith\u2019s life mattered, and his family deserves justice,\u201d Philadelphia Police Commissioner Kevin J. Bethel said. \u201cThis case is another example of what can be accomplished when investigators remain committed and law enforcement partners work as one. I am grateful to the Attorney General\u2019s Office, ATF, our homicide investigators, and the grand jurors for their tireless work. We will continue to pursue those who drive violence in our neighborhoods \u2013 and we will never stop working for the families left behind.\u201d<\/p>\n

The murder occurred a few minutes before 11:30 p.m. when the 27-year-old Smith was ambushed on a street sidewalk by two individuals who jumped out of a vehicle being operated by a third person. Video evidence showed one of these individuals, alleged to be Pridgen, standing over Smith and continuing to fire rounds into his lifeless body before jumping back into the vehicle.<\/p>\n

That vehicle was later determined to have been taken at gunpoint from its owner the previous day when two armed and masked males jumped out of a white vehicle (while a third person remained in that vehicle) and ordered the owner out of the vehicle near 2500 E. Monmouth Street in Philadelphia.<\/p>\n

Following a recommendation by the grand jury, Philadelphia Police Department charged Pridgen on Wednesday with murder, attempted murder, conspiracy (murder), robbery of a motor vehicle, violations of the Uniformed Firearms Act, and related offenses.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Attorney General Dave Sunday \u2014 in conjunction with the Philadelphia Police Department, U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":252462,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[69,71,70],"class_list":["post-252461","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252461","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=252461"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252461\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/252462"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=252461"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=252461"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=252461"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}