Shortly before 6 p.m. on Friday, September 5, a deadly clash erupted outside a 7-Eleven store at 12th and Chestnut Streets in Center City, Philadelphia, that left city resident Lauren Jardine, 33, dead. WCAU-TV, NBC’s affiliate in Philadelphia, reported that Jardine had intervened in a heated argument between John Kelly, 45, and his girlfriend, both of whom the article notes “were unhoused and known to frequent the area.”
According to the Philadelphia Inquirer, during the clash, “Jardine pulled out a gun — later confirmed to be stolen and illegally carried — and Kelly brandished a screwdriver.” A struggle for the gun ensued. Witness reports and cell phone videos show Kelly wound up with the gun and fired several shots at Jardine. In one video, after the first shots had been fired, Jardine is seen lying on the pavement. Ten seconds later, Kelly fires a final shot.
Jardine was transported to a local hospital, where “she was pronounced dead shortly after 7 p.m.”
Prosecutors from Soros-backed Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner’s office initially charged Kelly with murder, which most people familiar with the case agreed was appropriate. On Tuesday, however, it was widely reported that, after viewing “newly released video footage,” prosecutors had downgraded the charge to voluntary manslaughter.
After watching a video of the crime, Mark Fusetti, a retired sergeant of the Philadelphia warrant unit, was stunned by the downgrade to voluntary manslaughter. He insists that Krasner “just gave a murderer a free pass.”
The video below shows the suspect beating Jardine. Fusetti notes that, at 31 seconds, Kelly shoots her and “she’s done.” She no longer posed a threat to him. Yet, 10 seconds later, he fires again. Fusetti writes: “The threat was over at 31. This is murder! Why the free pass?”
In his second post, Fusetti told viewers that some people claimed the killing was justified simply because Jardine was the one who drew the gun. But that’s not how the law works, he said.
After Kelly had already beaten her, taken the weapon, and fired, Jardine was on the ground. Had he stopped there, a lesser charge might have been appropriate.
He explained:
The problem is, he shoots her. She’s down and she’s out. And 10 seconds later, he walks over and f***in’ executes her….Once the threat is done and over with, it’s over. You can’t go and f***in’ murder somebody after you have gotten the upper hand….Once he shot her the first time, and it stopped, that was the end of it. He waits 10 to 12 seconds, goes up and f***in’ puts it right behind her ear. That’s murder. Krasner gave him a freebie. This is one of the most insane f***ing cases you’ll ever hear about.
While Fusetti’s explanation makes perfect sense to me, I’ll admit that I am not a lawyer. What I do know, however, is that District Attorney Larry Krasner has built a reputation for being one of the most progressive prosecutors in the country, and critics frequently describe him as being notoriously soft on crime.
Krasner’s tenure has overlapped with a period in which Philadelphia has grown markedly more dangerous, plagued by spikes in violent crime, carjackings, and open-air drug markets. The perception that the city has suffered under his watch is hard to miss.
What we do know is that the progressive policies he champions have set the stage for three back-to-back acts of violence that have shocked the nation over the past ten days. We lurched from a mentally ill transgender man opening fire on children during a Mass at Annunciation Catholic School in Minneapolis, to a young woman brutally murdered by a repeat offender with more than a dozen priors — someone who would have been behind bars were it not for liberal judges and a no-cash-bail system — to the killing of Charlie Kirk, a man of deep faith whom Krasner’s ideological brethren over at MSNBC smeared as guilty of “hate speech” even as he lay dying.
District attorneys like Krasner — and many of his counterparts across the country — have spent years neglecting their duty to hold criminals accountable. Time and again, their progressive ideals have taken precedence over their fundamental obligation to safeguard the public. The cumulative weight of their bad prosecutorial decisions has pushed America into an increasingly dangerous place.
One murder on a Philadelphia street corner may mean little to Larry Krasner. But to John Kelly’s next victim, it will mean everything.
Elizabeth writes commentary for Legal Insurrection and The Washington Examiner. She is an academy fellow at The Heritage Foundation. Please follow Elizabeth on X or LinkedIn.
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