On the evening of December 23, 2011, 22-year-old Jonathan Bell left his mother’s home in the Germantown section of Philadelphia to exchange gifts with a woman he was seeing. Around 9:40 p.m., while walking on the 4900 block of West Sheldon Street only blocks from home, he was approached by two men who announced a robbery. Jonathan apparently tried to flee and was shot in the back; he was taken to a nearby hospital but the single gunshot wound was fatal.

Police described Jonathan as a good kid and a hard worker who was about to start a new job, and his mother, Tina Bell, had hugged him only hours before she was told of his death. The two men who accosted him have not been identified or apprehended, and the homicide remains unsolved. If anyone was in the area that night or has information about the two men seen on West Sheldon Street, please come forward.