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Police issue warrant in recent double homicide, seek ‘person of interest’

PHOTO PROVIDED The Williamsport Bureau of Police is searching for 35-year-old Joseph S. Coleman Jr., who has been charged in a recent double fatal shooting in the city's Newberry neighborhood. Anyone who knows of Coleman's whereabouts is asked to call police at 570-327-7593.

An arrest warrant has been issued for 35-year-old Joseph S. Coleman Jr., who is charged with allegedly gunning down Shane Wright and his 50-year-old mother last week after entering their Poplar Street home to “rob Wright of his drugs and money,” city police said Wednesday in court papers.

Police released a photo of Coleman, as well as that of “second person of interest,” and are asking the public’s help in determining Coleman’s whereabouts and the identity of the second man, whose picture was captured by a video camera apparently in a business.

Wright, 25, and his mother, Kristine Kibler, were shot to death in their home at 613 Poplar St. at about 9:50 p.m. on Oct. 31.

With the public release of a sworn affidavit filed by Agent Trent R. Peacock, police disclosed for the first time what they believe to be the motive behind the apparent home invasion in the city’s Newberry neighborhood.

“Coleman planned to rob Wright, who is known to Coleman to sell marijuana and molly,” the affidavit stated. Molly is another controlled substance.

One person told investigators that “Wright sold marijuana from the house and that robbery may have been the motive,” the affidavit also stated.

Also inside the house at the time of the shooting was Kibler’s daughter, Cheyanna Wright, and her boyfriend, and Cheyanna’s 2-year-old son. They were not injured nor were Shane Wright’s two children, ages 6 and 7.

Cheyanna Wright reported that she and her boyfriend “heard a scuffle outside their bedroom and discovered a masked gunman holding her mother,” Peacock wrote in the affidavit.

The gunman pointed his weapon at Cheyanna and her boyfriend, and the two “retreated back into the bedroom before they heard a gunshot,” Peacock said.

After the gunman fled the house, the daughter and boyfriend discovered her mother lying in the second-floor hallway, Peacock said. While the boyfriend was on the telephone with 911, Cheyanna discovered her brother’s motionless body in the front doorway, the investigator added.

Wright was pronounced dead at the scene of a gunshot wound to the head while his mother was pronounced dead  at Williamsport Regional Medical Center of a gunshot wound to the abdomen.

Anyone who knows Coleman’s whereabouts or the identity of  “the person of interest” is asked to call Peacock at 570-327-7593.

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