Lansdowne police in Delaware County, Pennsylvania, have obtained an arrest warrant charging Amir Eskridge, 21, of Yeadon, with murder in the fatal shooting of 18-year-old Richard DeShield Jr., a Penn Wood High School senior who was shot on the night of September 8 — and police say Eskridge, who was briefly held and released on the night of the killing, remains at large.

Source: PhillyVoice, Nov. 6, 2026

The warrant is the first charge announced in a killing that has hung over Lansdowne, a borough just west of Philadelphia, for nearly two months. Lansdowne Police Chief Kenneth Rutherford Jr. announced the development in a statement this week, saying detectives had spent the weeks since September building the case through forensic work before going to court for the warrant.

What happened on the night of September 8

On September 8, at about 10:34 p.m., a Lansdowne officer heard gunshots from the vicinity of 260 North Wycombe Avenue, according to the Lansdowne Police Department's account reported by FOX 29 and other Philadelphia-area outlets. Two men wearing dark, hooded clothing were seen standing near the driver's-side window of a car; both fled and ran into the nearby Marshall House Apartments.

DeShield was behind the wheel of the car, which crashed into a tree a short distance away near North Maple Avenue. Officers found him inside the vehicle, unresponsive and suffering from multiple gunshot wounds, and he was pronounced dead at the scene. A preliminary autopsy report from the Delaware County Medical Examiner's Office determined that he died as a result of the gunshot wounds.

Held that night, released hours later

Officers searching the Marshall House Apartments that night allegedly found Eskridge hiding in a basement electrical room, police said. He was taken into custody — and then released hours later, pending further investigation. That release is why the new warrant matters: police say the man they held on the night of the shooting is now formally charged with murder, and they are asking the public to help find him.

Subsequent investigative efforts included witness interviews, forensic examinations, firearm analysis, DNA testing, gunshot-residue testing and forensic examinations of multiple cellular devices, police said — work investigators say produced the evidence used to seek the warrant and to look for any other suspects.

Source: Lansdowne Police Department via Particle News, Nov. 6, 2026

What the police chief said

Chief Rutherford said: "This investigation is far from over. We have made significant progress, but we are not finished. The detectives have worked tirelessly to follow the evidence, and we remain committed to identifying and holding everyone involved in this senseless killing accountable." He added: "We have not forgotten Richard DeShield Jr. or his family and we will not allow this investigation to lose momentum." The wording — "everyone involved" — signals police believe Eskridge may not have acted alone; the second man seen at the car has not been publicly identified.

A senior year that never started

DeShield was hours away from starting his senior year at Penn Wood High School, where he was a linebacker on the school's football team, and he had aspired to join the U.S. Army, PhillyVoice reported. His mother, Wanda DeShield, told NBC10 in September that he was the third of her four children and her only son. "My heart is broken. No mother deserves this," she told the station. "No parent deserves to bury their child early. My son cannot graduate no more. I'm grieving. I'm a grieving mother. My son needs justice."

What happens next

Eskridge remains at large, and anyone with information about where he is can contact Lansdowne police at (610) 623-0700. The murder charge is an allegation based on the warrant; Eskridge is presumed innocent unless and until he is proven guilty in court. Once he is arrested, the case will move into Delaware County's courts, and detectives say the wider investigation — including identifying anyone else involved — continues in parallel.

For Lansdowne and the Penn Wood school community, the warrant closes the case's first chapter — the long, quiet forensic build — and opens a manhunt. Police have been explicit that the September release was a pause in the investigation, not the end of it, and the chief's statement was written as much for anyone else involved as for the public: the department says it is still coming.