Philadelphia police are asking the public for help finding a man charged with murder after a daylight attack inside a Northwest Philadelphia hair salon, and they are warning people not to approach him. In a wanted notice issued on Wednesday, November 4, the Philadelphia Police Department's Homicide Unit said Jamal Pistoria, 33, is wanted for the shooting death of Bellaniri Ofelia Hernandez Camilo, 34, inside the 6300 block of Stenton Avenue, and for the assault of two other women at the same location.

Source: Philadelphia Police Department

The attack happened on Monday afternoon, November 2, at ABBA Blessed Beauty Salon at 6305 Stenton Avenue in the West Oak Lane neighbourhood, according to PhillyVoice, reporting the account given by police and prosecutors. Police responded to a report of a shooting at about 2 p.m. that day and found Hernandez Camilo suffering from a gunshot wound. She was taken to Albert Einstein Medical Center — also reported as Jefferson Einstein Hospital — and was later pronounced dead.

What prosecutors say happened inside the salon

Assistant District Attorney Jeff Hojnowski, who leads the District Attorney's homicide unit, told reporters that Pistoria allegedly walked into the salon at about 2 p.m. and pointed a gun at the woman working at the register. Prosecutors say he marched her at gunpoint to a small kitchen at the back of the salon, where two other women were already gathered, fired a shot into the ceiling and locked the door. These are allegations set out by prosecutors; Pistoria has been charged, not convicted, and is presumed innocent unless proven guilty in court.

Over the next six minutes, prosecutors allege, Pistoria beat the three women, aged 33, 34 and 44, pistol-whipped two of them and forced one of the victims to perform a sexual act on him. Prosecutors allege he then shot Hernandez Camilo multiple times. Hojnowski said she had not fought him or engaged him at all, adding, in the words quoted in reporting of the briefing: 'He just decides to shoot her.'

According to the account given by prosecutors and reported by PhillyVoice, the two surviving women realised the gun was out of bullets, fought back and overpowered the attacker. He then fled, grabbing money from the salon's cash register on the way out — reporting of the prosecutor briefing says he dropped the till and got away with only a small amount of money — and he has not been apprehended since.

Surveillance video, a soda purchase and an identification

Homicide detectives pulled surveillance video from the salon and from nearby businesses. Prosecutors say the footage shows Pistoria in the area after the attack, including buying a soda at a nearby convenience store with his face fully visible, and that people who know him identified him from the video. Authorities say they do not believe Pistoria knew any of the three women, and the attack appears, on the information released so far, to have been random.

The district attorney's appeal and a neighbourhood on edge

District Attorney Larry Krasner asked the public on Wednesday for help finding Pistoria, calling him extremely dangerous and saying the city must do everything it can to bring him to justice, according to reporting of the briefing. City Councilmember Anthony Phillips, whose district includes the area, called the alleged attack heinous and said neighbours and business owners are deeply worried while the suspect remains at large. A Philadelphia cosmetologists' association has planned a vigil outside the salon for Monday at 4 p.m.

Hernandez Camilo was a wife and mother of two who lived in Philadelphia's Fairhill neighbourhood. Her husband, Francis Acosta Santos, told the Philadelphia Inquirer, as reported in coverage of the case, that the couple moved to Philadelphia from Chile in 2022 looking for better opportunities, correcting an early police statement that she was from New York City. She had started at the salon washing hair, was taking classes to become a stylist, worked long hours and was saving to build a house in the Dominican Republic so the family could be together. A GoFundMe set up by the salon says its owner, Arisleidy Pérez Gil, was also seriously hurt and needs surgery on her arm.

Court records cited in reporting show Pistoria was charged in Montgomery County in 2016 with burglary, robbery, making threats and drug possession, pleaded guilty the following year to one count of criminal trespassing, and was sentenced to two to four years in prison. That history is part of the public record reported by outlets covering the case; it does not prove the new charges, which must be decided in court.

What happens next

Pistoria has been charged with murder, attempted murder, rape, aggravated assault, burglary and weapons possession, among other crimes, according to police. The manhunt is the immediate next step: detectives are processing the crime scene, reviewing surveillance and interviewing witnesses while prosecutors pursue the charges. Until he is caught, the two surviving women — whose names police have not released — and salon workers and customers in West Oak Lane are living with the knowledge that the man charged over Monday's attack is still, in the police department's words, at large.