A Pennsylvania homeless advocate is devastated after his 15-year-old son was arrested in the slaying of a homeless man who allegedly raped the teen’s 16-year-old girlfriend behind a dumpster .
Thomas James Niarhos of Stowe, Pa., was arrested and charged with first-degree murder after he allegedly shot a homeless man, Jeremiah Waylon Hawkins, 39, in the head on Wednesday.
¦ ‘ACTIVE SHOOT’ IN POTTSTOWN: Pottstown Police are currently responding to an ‘active shooter’ incident at Security Plaza and S Hanover St in Montgomery County.
#MontgomeryCounty | #Pennsylvania
⚠️ One person would have suffered a head injury. The authorities have…
—nik t. hatziefstathiou (@nikthehat) November 22, 2023
In accordance with DailyMail.com, Thomas used a gun that belonged to his father, Tom Niarhos, to kill Hawkins. Police recovered the Smith & Wesson .40 caliber semi-automatic firearm from the Pottstown scene.
Tom Niarhos works at Pottstown Beacon of Hope, a nonprofit that provides homeless people with “year-round emergency shelter,” according to his web site. He said Hawkins was not known to the Beacon of Hope shelter.
“The only comment I have is that it was [a] tragedy and my prayers go out to [Hawkins’] family,” Tom told DailyMail.com.
According to the outlet, the elder Niarhos “has been the charity’s executive director for the past three years, having been homeless himself.”
Four months before the shooting, Thomas had told police that Hawkins had raped his girlfriend, police records revealed.
“Pottstown police investigated the allegations at the time, but received no cooperation from the girl’s family and her mother told police they did not want to press charges,” DailyMail.com reports.
Citing witness interviews and reviewing surveillance video, police believe Thomas went looking for Hawkins. The two were seen arguing in a video.
According to police, Hawkins threw a tire iron at the boy. Thomas allegedly fired a single shot into Hawkins’ face, and the man fell to the ground. The teenager then allegedly shot Hawkins a second time and dropped the gun. Bystanders held him until the police arrived.
“He’s a rapist, don’t feel sorry for him … he raped a 15-year-old girl, don’t help him,” Thomas told police as they escorted him to the station.
On Wednesday, the distraught father told police he had found a note and a bag full of clothes in his son’s room that day, indicating Thomas had planned to run away.
It was a crying friend who alerted Tom to his son’s incident by phone.
He identified the firearm to detectives from a photograph and said that although he had recently been keeping the gun in a locked nightstand in his master bedroom, it was missing.
The teenager was “formally charged as an adult with first-degree murder, third-degree murder, possession of a firearm as a minor, among other charges,” DailyMail.com reports.
“He was formally arraigned by Magisterial District Judge Margaret Hunsicker on November 22, 2023 and was held at the Montgomery County Youth Center,” according to the outlet. “A preliminary hearing is scheduled for November 30, 2023 before Magisterial District Judge Scott T. Palladino.”
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