{"id":273107,"date":"2026-08-27T08:02:13","date_gmt":"2026-08-27T08:02:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/273107\/"},"modified":"2026-08-27T08:02:13","modified_gmt":"2026-08-27T08:02:13","slug":"exclusive-sister-of-hunting-park-murder-victim-pleas-for-justice-nbc10-philadelphia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/273107\/","title":{"rendered":"Exclusive: Sister of Hunting Park murder victim pleas for justice \u2013 NBC10 Philadelphia"},"content":{"rendered":"

The sister of a 29-year-old Sharef Holman, who was killed after getting shot in the back<\/a> allegedly by a man still wanted by authorities, said that her brother had turned his life around after a struggle with drug addiction and was working as an elderly care worker.<\/p>\n

Candice Holman, the older sister of Sharef, spoke exclusively with NBC10 on the two-moth anniversary of Sharef’s murder. It also came the same day as Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner named Sharef’s alleged killer, 21-year-old Jahylin Melchur, as a fugitive. <\/a><\/p>\n

Melchur is wanted for the the murder of Sharef, as well as the murder of 45-year-old Martin Higgins and the shooting of a third man, Krasner said. All three incidents occurred in Philadelphia’s Hunting Park neighborhood, and investigators believe all three men were targeted because they were gay. <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCandice Holman, the sister of Sharef Holman, spoke exclusively with NBC10’s Johnny Archer on the two-month anniversary of his death.\u00a0\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Candice said her brother — just before he died — had reached a point of growth and maturity after achieving more than a year of sobriety.<\/p>\n

“He passed on the year mark of his sobriety,” Candice said. <\/p>\n

Sharef worked at an elderly nursing home, and Candice said he went to work wanting to put a smile on their faces. <\/p>\n

“He went to work, and everyday he would say, ‘I want to go to work clean, smelling good and with a smile on my face because this may be the last day that these people get,'” Candice said.<\/p>\n

\"<\/p>\n

Candice said that she, Sharef and their six siblings grew up in a difficult environment in North Philadelphia , but he showed her that she could get out and overcome her environment.<\/p>\n

“He was the person that made me learn that I had to show someone how to be a better person,” Candice said. <\/p>\n

Sharef, through his and Candice’s family, had never lived a day alone in his life, she said. And the way Sharef died, alone and shot in the back, was unfathomable to her. <\/p>\n

“My brother died alone, he’s never been alone in his life.” Candice said. “And to know that he died in the rain, shot in the back, on the ground, bleeding out by himself. It doesn’t hurt me. It is unfathomable to know that is how he went out.” <\/p>\n

When asked what her message would be to Melchur, Candice said that she would trade having a brother dead with a brother in prison any day. <\/p>\n

“I layed by the graveside of my brother today after two months, and I would trade anything to have my hand on the glass,” she said, referring to the glass between a visitor and a person in prison. “And be able to know that he’s alive, then to be laying by his graveside.”<\/p>\n

“My brother was not perfect, but he did not deserve that. I know for a fact he did not deserve that,” Candice added. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The sister of a 29-year-old Sharef Holman, who was killed after getting shot in the back allegedly by…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":273108,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[22652,69,71,70],"class_list":["post-273107","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-hunting-park","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273107","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=273107"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273107\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/273108"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=273107"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=273107"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=273107"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}