Federal prosecutors charged five men this week accused of impersonating Philadelphia police officers in the 2006 kidnapping and killing of a 38-year-old man.
The indictment filed in the U.S. District Court in Eastern Pennsylvania alleges the men — while posing as police officers using fake badges, police lights, and firearms — kidnapped Shamari Taylor and his then-21-year-old girlfriend from West Philadelphia to rob him of cocaine and drug money.
Kevin Holloway, 45; Mark Scott, 48; Linton Mathis, 50; Atiba Wicker, 47; and Kenneth Tuck, 51, were charged in federal court with conspiracy to commit kidnapping resulting in death, kidnapping resulting in death, and aiding and abetting.
The couple was sitting in a car in the Philadelphia neighborhood of Overbrook on Aug. 26, 2006, when they were abducted and taken to a warehouse, CBS News Philadelphia reported. The kidnappers released the girlfriend several hours later, but Taylor, the son of a former state representative, remained missing. A day after Taylor disappeared, someone broke into his family’s home in West Philadelphia and shot his sister and mother in their heads. They both survived.
Authorities located Taylor’s remains almost 12 years later, on Aug. 21, 2018, in a shallow grave in North Philadelphia, a Department of Justice news release said. Federal prosecutors said his abductors suffocated him. Taylor was identified through dental records, CBS News Philadelphia reported.
Philadelphia County arrested and charged Kenneth Tuck in connection to Taylor’s kidnapping in September 2006, but after two trials he was acquitted of all charges.
Law enforcement agencies, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Philadelphia Police Department, the Drug Enforcement Administration, and Pennsylvania State Parole, continued the investigation until charges were filed this week.
“Anyone who commits a heinous crime and is still walking free years later might just assume they’ve gotten away with it,” said U.S. Attorney Romero. “Well, they should think again. We and our law enforcement partners will doggedly pursue justice for victims of violence and accountability for the perpetrators — no matter how long it may take.”
