Imagine answering the front door at night and seeing three dark (and probably hooded) faces staring back at you.
It’s the stuff of nightmares.
A 25-year-old Erie man fatally shot in the doorway of his eastside residence in early December was mortally wounded as three males armed with a handgun attempted to rob him, according to information outlined in the criminal complaint of a teenager charged in the case on Wednesday.
Damarjon D. Beason, 17, was taken into police custody on Wednesday morning and was later arraigned by Erie 3rd Ward District Judge Tom Carney on charges including criminal homicide, aggravated assault and robbery.
Beason was charged under the Fisher Bill, a state law that permits juveniles accused of committing violent crime to be charged as adults.
Beason is charged in the shooting death of 25-year-old Patric Phillips on the late afternoon of Dec. 7. Derrick D. Elverton, 19, of Erie, was charged in the case on Feb. 11 and is awaiting a preliminary hearing scheduled for May 1.
Officers who responded to a residence in the 700 block of East 24th Street after the shooting was reported on Dec. 7 at 5:48 p.m. found Phillips dead in the doorway of the residence.
An autopsy determined that Phillips died of at least two gunshot wounds, one to the head and one to the neck, Erie County Coroner Lyell Cook said.
According to police, Phillips was inside his residence with two other people when someone knocked on the back door. Phillips opened the door and was shot, police said.