As he was walking through a North Philadelphia neighborhood on the evening of June 7 of this year, 30-year-old Raheen Myers witnessed a robbery and murder.
Robert Wood III, a 21-year-old reservist in the U.S. Marine Corps, was approached from behind by two men who grabbed his backpack. One of the men shot Robert, and Raheen ran to the stranger’s aid.
Raheen stayed with Robert as they waited for first responders. When officers arrived, Raheen helped them put Robert in the back of a patrol car and remained by his side on the way to Temple University Hospital. As he lay dying, Robert told Raheen, “Tell my family I love them.”
In a tragic, heartbreaking twist, Raheen himself was a victim of gun violence less than a month later. He was walking in the area of North 23rd Street and Cecil B. Moore Avenue in the early morning hours of July 3 when he was attacked by and shot in the chest. He was pronounced dead a short time later.
Raheen’s mother, Pamela Belcher, doesn’t believe the two homicides are related. Her son had told her that the gunmen from Robert’s murder had already fled and had not seen Raheen helping him. (One was arrested and charged with killing Robert that night; the second suspect is still at large.)
Although Raheen did a selfless act in comforting Robert, it doesn’t ease the pain of losing him.
“He came from a big family and we’re heartbroken,” Pamela said. “It wasn’t Raheen’s time. My son had a lot of life to live and it got taken away from him. That’s the thing I can’t get over — I don’t understand why they killed my son. I ask myself that each and every day.”
Born on Jan. 4, 1990 to Pamela and his father John Sherrill, Raheen was known as the funny one out of Pamela’s eight children. If you were having a bad day, Raheen could turn it around.
“He always had that big Kool Aid smile, laughing all the time,” Pamela said. She recalled with a chuckle that when he was a kid he called himself a “funny money hustler” and she called him “Raheeny-deeny.”
Raheen enjoyed drawing, dancing and writing in his journal, and he loved it when Pamela cooked him fish and grits.
He had earned his GED and was working in a factory to provide for his children, who are ages 10, 8, 5, 1½ and 6 months. He was known as an early riser, and his kids have taken after him. He loved being a father.
“He was looking forward to watching his kids grow up, working and doing what he’s supposed to do,” Pamela said. “He was a good dad. They loved him too.”
Pamela has not been able to connect with Robert Wood’s parents, but she would like to. More than anything, she wants whoever killed Raheen to be arrested and charged.
“I try to be strong, but I can’t because it broke me inside,” she said. “The day he left, it took something out of me, and that was my child.”
In addition to his parents, children and extended family, Raheen is survived by siblings Aaron, Richard, Malik, Edward, Barbara and Tamika Myers and Wyleak Blakey.
Raheen is laid to rest at Chelten Hills Cemetery.
A reward of up to $20,000 if available to anyone that comes forward with information that leads to the arrest and conviction of the person responsible for Raheen’s murder. Anonymous tips can be submitted by calling the Citizens Crime Commission at 215-546-TIPS.
Date: 2020-07-03
Location: 1700 N 23rd St, Philadelphia, PA
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