Richard Pridgen was indicted in Philadelphia on murder, attempted murder and related charges in the 2023 shooting death of George Smith. The Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Office announced the grand jury indictment Thursday, saying Pridgen now faces a third murder case while already serving a federal prison sentence.
George Smith in North Philadelphia
Smith was 27 when he was killed just before midnight on April 22, 2023, in the 2400 block of North 17th Street. State prosecutors said surveillance cameras captured the killing and that one of the attackers was identified as Pridgen.
Prosecutors said Pridgen fired multiple shots into Smith’s body before fleeing in a vehicle driven by a third person. They said the vehicle had been stolen at gunpoint the day before in the 2500 block of East Monmouth Street, less than four miles from the shooting location.
Thursday and Dave Sunday
Dave Sunday said in a Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Office news release on Thursday, "There are public dangers, and then there is Richard Pridgen — for whom killing, stealing, and harming people is a way of life". The office said the new indictment adds to the cases already filed against him in Philadelphia County.
State prosecutors said the other homicides Pridgen is accused of committing also happened in 2023 in Philadelphia. One involved Hassan German, 31, and another man who survived a shooting on May 24, 2023, at North Gratz Street and Susquehanna Avenue in North Philadelphia. Pridgen has pleaded not guilty in both prior murder cases.
Backblock gang and Philadelphia
Prosecutors said Pridgen is a member of the Backblock gang, and they linked the killings and carjackings to a broader investigation in Philadelphia. In February, he was convicted in federal court of two carjackings and sentenced to more than 17 years in federal prison, with federal prosecutors saying he robbed two men of their vehicles at gunpoint and neither man was injured.
The new state indictment keeps the murder case moving even as Pridgen remains in federal custody. For the families tied to the 2023 shootings, the immediate change is that prosecutors have added another homicide case to a defendant already facing long prison time, and the unanswered part is whether the separate 2023 killing with no named victim in the record will be added to the same pattern.
