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Just before Philadelphia resident Amir Nobles was gunned down in an SUV in the parking lot of the Bridge Street Commons at 326 Bridge St. nearly three years ago, he exchanged text messages during a two-hour period with a woman who city police allege set him up to be killed.
Shakya El, 21, of Philadelphia, was brought back here from Lancaster County to face felony charges of criminal homicide, aggravated assault, criminal conspiracy to murder and illegal use of a cellphone in connection with the slaying of the 27-year-old Nobles, who was shot outside the 10-unit apartment complex at 3:23 a.m. on April 6, 2020.
El communicated with Nobles multiple times via cellphone, leading up to Nobles' homicide, investigators said. In one text message between the two, El asked Nobles to pick her up at the Commons, investigators said in an affidavit.
When Nobles arrived, "El stopped communicating with him. Nobles was then shot in his vehicle," police said.
"Forensic evidence recovered at the scene showed that Nobles' vehicle was fired upon by two gunmen ultimately striking and killing him," police said.
Nobles was pronounced dead at the scene, police said. Residents of the 10-unit Commons reported hearing anywhere from five to 10 shots.
Several hours after the shooting, one resident told a reporter at the scene, "I thought there were two
different guns (involved)."
In a criminal complaint, Agent Brittany Alexander, the lead investigator, alleged that El conspired with others to "not only lure Nobles to Bridge Street, where he was ambushed, shot and killed, but she conspired with the individuals responsible for his death to orchestrate and carry out the plan."
Police recovered Nobles' cellphone at the scene and determined, through extensive data research, that on the morning he was shot, he and El exchanged 42 text messages, beginning at 1:10 a.m. and ending about 3:21 a.m., Alexander said.
"The content shows El directing Nobles to get a hotel room and then directing him to come get her. She stated 'I'm in the spot. You know where I'm at.' Once Nobles arrived at Bridge Street, he sent two messages to her, approximately three minutes apart. Including one saying 'I'm outside.' However, he received no response from her then or after the time of his death," the agent said in the affidavit.
When officers arrived, they found Nobles in the driver's seat of a 2019 Hyundai Tucson that was stopped against the south wall of the complex, court records stated.
The engine was still running and there were "numerous bullet holes" in the van, Alexander said. "The driver was not moving, and he had suffered at least one gunshot wound to the head," she said.
At the time of the homicide, the county's Narcotics Enforcement Unit told city police the unit was investigating El for her alleged "involvement in narcotics distribution." Three weeks after the killing, city investigators executed a search warrant at a home in the 600 block of Krouse Avenue., where El was living at the time, Alexander said. Police seized two cellphones, and El admitted she was the owner of both of them.
In the contact list of one of El's phones was a man who, at the time, was "a known associate" of a Philadelphia gang that called itself '234 Gang,' Alexander said, adding that investigators determined that El was "affiliated" with the same gang. Nobles was "an associate" of a second Philadelphia gang known as "16th and Tasker Streets," the agent said, adding that both gangs have "been involved in a long-time dispute" with one other.
City police said shortly after they filed the arrest warrant for El on Tuesday, state police in Lancaster just happened to be fingerprinting her for another criminal case. She was then detained and returned to Lycoming County. El was arraigned before District Judge Aaron Biichle and committed to the Lycoming County Prison on no bail.