PHILADELPHIA (CBS) — The Philadelphia Police Department has identified a man in a wheelchair who died in a stolen car crash in Port Richmond as 38-year-old Bill Repko. It happened on Custer and Alamingo Boulevards over the weekend when police were chasing a suspect in a stolen Cadillac.
Repko’s friends said that when he was homeless, many knew him as a kind person who liked to communicate with people.
Friends are urgently calling for justice because there is now a monument on Castor and Aramingo Avenues in honor of Repko, who police say was killed Saturday night while begging in a wheelchair.
“He’s good, he’s been good to me. As she said, he will give you his shirt,” said Tanya Gallagher.
Police said Repko died when a stolen Cadillac crashed into another car and lost control.
“I’m so sad, I cried last night,” Logan’s Tracey Norton said. “I knew it was him when I saw this beat-up wheelchair on the street.”
“He was smart and educated,” Norton said. “Just because he’s on the corner doesn’t mean his life means nothing, because it meant a lot to me.”
Police have arrested a 19-year-old suspect named Efrain Rosario. He was charged with VUFA-lack of license and VUFA, but police say the other three in the stolen car are still at large.
“It’s absolutely horrific, it’s absolutely tragic, and unfortunately, it doesn’t just change one person’s life. It’s a domino effect,” Haggerty said.
On Monday, CBS3 saw police amassing CCTV footage from a nearby business, possibly showing the crash and possibly three suspects.
Matt Petrillo returned to join the CBS3 Eyewitness News team in March 2018 as a general assignment reporter.
Post time: Jan-31-2023