Two charged with murder in Strawberry Mansion fire that killed a pregnant mother and two children, police say
Ashley Thompson, 32, and two of her children were killed in the fire in Strawberry Mansion on June 13, police said.
Two people accused of intentionally setting a fire that tore through a Strawberry Mansion home, killing a pregnant mother and two of her children, have been charged with murder, police said Friday.
Charles Sumpter, 67, and Fleitte Newell, 44, were charged with multiple counts of murder and related crimes in connection with the June 13 blaze that killed Ashley Thompson, 32, and two of her children, Assad, 6, and Alaya, 4, police said.
Firefighters responded to a report of a home on fire shortly before 5 a.m. and found the home on the 2500 block of North Corlies Street engulfed in flames, police said.
As first responders searched the home, they found Thompson dead on the second floor, the Philadelphia Fire Department said.
Assad and Alaya were also found inside the home and were rushed to a local hospital, where they were pronounced dead.
A third child, 2, was also taken to a local hospital and is in stable condition, police said. A 54-year-old woman, whom police did not identify, was taken to hospital and was also in stable condition.
The fire was brought under control before 5:30 a.m. that day, fire officials said, and there were functional smoke alarms inside the home at the time of the blaze.
After an investigation, police executed a search warrant at a house on the 2800 block of West Albert Street Wednesday and arrested Sumpter and Newell, police said.
Neighbors and friends of the Thompson family gathered near the house hours after the fire, remembering Thompson and her children on what they described as a tight-knit block of North Corlies Street.