Sherman Easterling News Today

Hassan Elliott, now 25, is accused of fatally shooting Sgt. James O’Connor IV, 46, who was posthumously promoted from corporal.

Friday, December 11, 2020 The U.S. Attorney’s Office Eastern District of Pennsylvania released the below information: PHILADELPHIA – United States Attorney William M. McSwain announced that an Indictment was unsealed today charging four defendants with the murder of Philadelphia Police Corporal James “Jimmy” O’Connor (seen in the above photo), posthumously promoted to Sergeant, and related drug trafficking and firearms offenses. The defendants charged in the Indictment are Hassan Elli...

WHYY By U.S. Attorney William McSwain outside the federal courthouse in Philadelphia. (Kimberly Paytner/WHYY) Federal prosecutors in Philadelphia have charged four men with murder in connection to the shooting death of Sgt. James O’Connor, who was killed in March while trying to serve a fugitive warrant in Frankford. Hassan Elliott, the 22-year-old accused of firing the bullets that killed O’Connor that morning, is eligible for the death penalty, according to a seven-count indictment unseal...

U.S. Attorney William McSwain announced the charges during a Thursday afternoon press conference in Philadelphia. "We are here to announce that the US Attorneys Office has unsealed an indictment against four individuals...for the murder of Philadelphia Police Sgt. James OConnor as well as related drug and weapons charges," McSwain said. The four men are identified as 22-year-old Hassan Elliot, 19-year-old Khalif Sears, 20-year-old Bilal Mitchell, and 25-year-old Sherman Easterling, all of Phila...

The men face federal murder, drug and weapons charges in the seven-count indictment. "All four defendants are responsible for the murder of Sgt. OConnor," McSwain said. Special findings in the indictment against the men makes Elliot, the suspected gunman, eligible for the federal death penalty, McSwain said. He noted that a jury would ultimately decide if the death penalty is warranted. Dozens of uniformed Philadelphia police officers stood by nearby awaiting the charges to be announced outside...