Late Wednesday night, Erie police officers were looking into a report of an assault in an eastside neighborhood. They found surveillance video that showed four people chasing a man after he left a bar in the 1100 block of East 26th Street.
Investigators say that the man was pushed to the ground in the 1000 block of East 26th Street and then attacked by other people.
The person who was hurt was hit, kicked, and stomped on until he lost consciousness. Detectives wrote in criminal complaints about the event that the video showed him lying on the sidewalk and not moving while people kept shining a light on him and kicking him.
The attack killed the person, who was named by Erie County Coroner Lyell Cook as Ledomperignon Eady, who was 31 years old.
Cook said that Eady died from blunt force damage to the head and neck caused by an attack by unknown attackers. He declared the death a murder.
Erie police said they had identified most of the five possible suspects in Eady’s death. However, they were still trying to find at least one other person they named a “person of interest” on Monday.
36-year-old Leah A. Hardin and 61-year-old Jack M. DeFilippo are two of the people accused of killing Eady. They have been charged with criminal homicide, aggravated assault, and other crimes, and they are being held without bond at the Erie County Prison, according to reports from Erie police and the county court. Court records show that Hardin was arraigned on Thursday night and DeFilippo was arraigned on Friday night.
Three suspects were named on Thursday. Police and court records show that 37-year-old Jeffrey D. Edmond was given an arrest warrant. As of Monday morning, Edmond had not been caught or charged.
Erie police Deputy Chief Rick Lorah said Monday that a fourth person of interest in the attack was found and questioned before being let go. Several other people who saw the attack and at least one more person of interest are still being sought by detectives, he said.
Why did the attack happen?
Monday, Lorah said that detectives are still not sure what led to the attack on Eady. However, they did learn that Eady and the suspects may have been fighting over a theft.
Police who charged Hardin, DeFilippo, and Edmond said in affidavits that one witness heard someone they described as Edmond say after the attack, “he shouldn’t have been stealing, shouldn’t have been a thief.”
Forensic officers were called to the area of East 26th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue at 11:19 p.m. on October 30 for a report of an attack in which up to five people were kicking someone on the ground. People who came to help found Eady in the 1000 block of East 26th Street.
The Erie County Coroner’s Office says that Eady was taken to UPMC Hamot and declared dead there at 11:58 p.m. on October 30.
Police in Erie said they talked to a witness and looked all over the area for camera video. According to the affidavits, the video showed Hardin, who was driving, turning onto Pennsylvania Avenue and stopping in the middle of the street before joining the other people who were following Eady. Detectives wrote in the statements that the video showed Edmond hitting Eady on the ground and Hardin putting up afoot to try to attack her. They also saw someone else join in the attack.
According to the statements, Edmond was seen leaving the area and going north on Pennsylvania Avenue, and Hardin was seen driving her car north and then turning around.
Investigators wrote that when Hardin was questioned by police, she said that she and Edmond were the ones in the video.
Police said that video footage they had found also showed a man they named DeFilippo riding a bike in the area and taking part in the fight. His statement said that he admitted to being a part of the attack and that he had hit Eady in the ribs several times.
If you know anything that could help the police in their investigation into the murder, please call Detective Sgt. Ira Bush at 814-870-1128 or Detective Benjamin Gadsby at 814-870-1338.
Source: Reported homicide: Three charged in death of Erie man in assault
