Two men admit to roles in Willow Grove Park Mall shooting
NORRISTOWN — Two Philadelphia men were sent to prison in connection with their roles in a shooting that seriously injured a third man after a verbal altercation outside the Willow Grove Park Mall.
Heyzer Perez Maldonado, 20, and Justin Bermudez, 18, each was sentenced in Montgomery County Court to 5 to 10 years in a state correctional facility after they pleaded guilty to felony charges of aggravated assault and conspiracy to commit aggravated assault in connection with the Nov. 15, 2020, shooting outside the second level entrance doors of the mall in Abington Township.
Judge Thomas P. Rogers imposed the sentences as part of plea agreements.
As part of the plea agreements, a charge of attempted homicide was dismissed against each man.
Bermudez was 17 at the time of the shooting but was charged as an adult because of the serious, violent nature of the crime. Rogers previously denied a request by Bermudez to transfer his case to juvenile court where punishments are less severe and focus is more on rehabilitation.
The investigation began about 5:50 p.m. Nov. 15, when Abington police responded to the mall located at 2500 Moreland Road for a report of a shooting.
“Witnesses reported that a male victim was struck by gunfire and was collapsed on the pavement outside of the second level entrance doors,” Abington Detective Robert Hill Jr. wrote in the arrest affidavit, adding witnesses reported the two men who fired the shots at the victim fled the area on foot.
Detectives recovered two .45-caliber shell casings on the ground next to the victim. Additionally, authorities found an extended handgun magazine containing a dozen .45-caliber rounds, that were the same color and make of the spent casings recovered at the scene of the shooting, discarded in bushes near a fence line along the southwest side of the mall property.
The male victim was taken to a nearby trauma center where he underwent surgery for wounds to his lower abdomen and left bicep, according to court papers.
“The rounds fired caused internal injuries to the victim that required emergency surgery and a lengthy hospital stay and rehabilitation,” Hill wrote in the arrest affidavit.
Witnesses who were with the victim, told detectives the victim did not know the shooters but “exchanged words with the two shooters as they passed each other on the second level of the mall,” according to court papers. The shooters allegedly told the victim that they could step outside to settle the matter and the group proceeded to an area outside the mall’s second level entrance.
Detectives obtained mall security camera footage that appeared to show “another brief verbal exchange between the victim and members of his group and the two suspects,” Hill alleged.
Video footage depicted Perez Maldonado remove a handgun that was concealed on his person and fire two rounds at the victim, which caused him to fall to the ground, detectives said. Bermudez then removed a handgun that was concealed on his person and fired one shot in the direction of the victim as he lay on the ground, according to the arrest affidavit.
Detectives used video footage that captured the shooting and images of the vehicle that brought Bermudez and Perez Maldonado to the mall to identify the suspects, according to court papers.
Photos recovered during a search of Perez Maldonado’s cellphone showed an extended handgun magazine loaded with .45-caliber ammunition and it appeared to be similar to the magazine recovered from the bushes on the mall property after the shooting, according to court documents.
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