The man charged with killing five in a mass shooting in Philadelphia was known to his family and neighbors for dressing as a woman, but while they described him to The Post as “weird,” none felt he was capable of violence.
Kimbrady Carriker, 40, has been hit with a slew of murder and other charges after allegedly opening fire with an AR-15 style rifle in the city’s working-class Kingsessing neighborhood on Monday night.
As well as those murdered, two kids were shot and others were injured in the shooting which seemed to target random individuals.
Several neighbors, who knew the suspect simply as “Kim,” said they were stunned to learn of the alleged mass shooter’s identity, insisting he had never caused any problems in the neighborhood in the decade he lived there.
“He never bothered anyone. We knew he was different, we see him dressed as a woman a few times but he never caused a problem,” Bernard Mason, 53, said.
“We thought he was gay. We never saw him with anyone. We saw him dressed as a woman. That’s his thing. I have no problems with that.”
Carriker had posted several photos on Facebook in recent months where sported long hair, jewelry and female clothing. His mugshot, released earlier Wednesday, showed him with short braided hair, a moustache and goatee.
Another neighbor, who didn’t want to be named, described Carriker as being “strange” but said he still never thought he was capable of violence.
“He was a good guy but something made his rubber band pop,” the man said, adding: “You just don’t start dressing like a woman out of nowhere.”
The neighbor described Carriker as going “undercover” when he dressed in women’s outfits.
“He would do it randomly,” he said. “He was weird, to tell you the truth, but he was a nice guy.”
Another neighbor, Gary Jones, said he’d only seen him dressing up once, adding: “I don’t think it’s an everyday thing.”
“I just thought he was a regular guy. Yeah I saw him in regular clothes and one time in female clothes – cross dressing,” the retired bus driver, 69, said.
Carriker’s grandmother, who wouldn’t divulge her name, said she saw him dress in female clothing once – and he never did it again in front of her because she didn’t approve.
“He knew I disapproved of it … He dressed as a man when he came to me, when he was around me,” she said.
“He did it one time and that was it.”
“He was no trans. He was just gay,” she continued. “That’s my perspective.”
While police and the DA’s office initially referred to the suspect with they/them pronouns, authorities have now been referring to Carriker as a male, CNN reported.
Officials in the District Attorney’s office were not immediately available for comment when contacted by The Post.
On his since-deleted Facebook page, Carriker regularly posted about supporting Black Lives Matter, including supporting workers who protested in the Strike For Black Lives in July 2020.
At least some of the victims gunned down in Monday’s bloodshed were black.
Asked why he would target such residents if he supported BLM, his grandmother said: “Well that’s a question that all black people should all be asking.”
The grandmother, who described Carriker as a “good person”, said her grandson hadn’t stopped by her home in two months, which was out of character for him.
“The weird thing is he would come by at least three times a month. I haven’t seen him the last two months. I find that kinda odd,” she said.
“I couldn’t believe it. It’s devastating. What happened? What set you off to do these things?” she said of the bloodshed.
“Something must have happened to set him off like that.”
Meanwhile, Carriker was ordered to be held without bail during his arraignment in Philadelphia County Municipal Court earlier Wednesday.
In addition to the five counts of murder, he has been charged with attempted murder, reckless endangerment and aggravated assault.
The holiday weekend bloodshed unfolded when Carriker is said to have donned a bulletproof vest and ski mask before opening fire at random people in the street with the rifle, authorities said.
When he surrendered to cops a short time later, he was allegedly found with a pistol, extra magazines and a police scanner in his possession.
Carriker, who had a prior conviction for having an unlicensed firearm in 2003, was allegedly carrying a “ghost gun” Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner told CNN on Wednesday, referring to an unregistered firearm that’s manufactured illegally.
Krasner, who described the horror as a “random, premeditated deliberate killing”, said there was good reason to believe the AR-15 and the ghost gun Carriker used “may have been obtained illegally.”
Carriker doesn’t appear to have had any prior connection to his alleged victims and authorities are still trying to determine a motive, the DA said.
The slain victims have been identified as Lashyd Merritt, 20, Dymir Stanton, 29, Ralph Moralis, 59, Daujan Brown, 15, and Joseph Wamah Jr., 31.
A 2-year-old boy and a 13-year-old youth were also injured by gunfire, while another 2-year-old boy and a woman were hit by shattered glass.
