Suspect in Philadelphia Salon Killing Arrested on SEPTA Bus

Jamal Pistoria, 33, was arrested aboard a SEPTA bus in the 500 block of South Broad Street at about 1 a.m. on November 6, Philadelphia police said. He is accused of killing a woman and assaulting two others at a salon in the city’s East Mount Airy neighborhood on November 2. Charges including murder and sexual assault were expected later that Friday; robbery and other offenses were also cited by officials.

Investigators said Pistoria entered the salon on Stenton Avenue with a gun and took a woman employee to a locked room where three women were. He allegedly sexually and physically assaulted the women, striking them with his gun, before shooting 34-year-old Ofelia Bellaniri Hernandez Camil, who died. Authorities described the shooting as seemingly random.

The two surviving women fought back after Pistoria’s gun stopped firing, investigators said, and he fled. Police said he stopped at the salon’s cash register and took something as he left. Surveillance footage later captured a man police identified as Pistoria at a shop, briefly revealing his face as he purchased a soft drink. The arrest came five days after the attack.