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Video Captures Woman Being Executed in Philadelphia By Man Who Turned Out to Be a Serial Killer
Surveillance video showed someone firing a gun at the back of Patricia McDermott's head. When Juan Covington emerged as a suspect, police were shocked by what came next.
Center City, a dynamic business and historic district in Philadelphia, is known as a safe and relatively crime-free area.
It’s minutes from the art museum where Sylvester Stallone's title character in Rocky ran up the steps in the movie. But on May 17, 2005, the area became linked to a much more sinister event.
At around 5 a.m., Patricia McDermott, 48, was found face-down on a sidewalk “with a gunshot wound in the head,” said Lt. Joe Maum, a former lieutenant with the Philadelphia Police Department
“She had already been pronounced dead by rescue, who was still on the scene,” Maum said in “The Center City Devil” episode of Philly Homicide, airing Saturdays at 9 p.m. on Oxygen.
While tracking down McDermott’s killer, detectives were shocked to find out that the case was linked to several more murders.
Who was Patricia McDermott?
McDermott, a working mom, was an X-ray technician at Pennsylvania Hospital near the crime scene.
Coworkers said of McDermott, “She was just a good person... good at her job,” Chuck Boyle, a now-retired Philadelphia Police Department detective, told Philly Homicide. “They had been shocked that morning she hadn’t showed up.”
Asked if McDermott was romantically involved with someone or if she had any conflicts, hospital employees had no leads for police.
McDermott’s husband, George Amarhanov, and their two young children also had no clues to help push the investigation forward.
Police question Patricia McDermott’s husband
Detectives learned that Amarhanov had a criminal record including burglary and drug charges. “He did some time in prison,” said Maum.
Amarhanov’s rap sheet didn’t include any violent felonies. “Patricia had a life insurance policy, and that could be a motivation,” said Boyle. “George’s alibi was that he was home at the time of the murder.”
Angela Amarhanov, the daughter of McDermott and Amarhanov, told Philly Homicide: “My dad was in a car accident when I was a baby." She added that the accident “tremendously changed” her parents’ lives.
“He had difficulty walking, breathing, talking, so they were not together when my mom was murdered,” Angela said.
Surveillance video shows Patricia McDermott being shot
McDermott was shot outside a U.S. Postal Service office building. Security cameras mounted on the building monitored the sidewalk and street below.
At 9 a.m. on May 17, detectives gained entrance to the post office and were able to access the building’s surveillance footage.
The grainy video captured McDermott walking on the street. It also showed a person walking behind who “kept getting closer, closer, closer,” said Boyle.
“It’s not often that we can get video... that actually shows a murder taking place,” Boyle added.
The security footage showed what appeared to be a male producing a handgun and aiming at McDermott. “He fired at the back of her head,” said Maum.
“At that point, I had been a police officer for approximately 32 years,” Maum added. “I’d never actually seen anybody actually executed. That’s what this was.”
The crime sent shockwaves through law enforcement. “When I first saw this video, I was dismayed,” said Richard Ross, a retired captain from the Philadelphia Police Department. “I was also angry that someone could take a life in such a brazen, evil way.”
In addition to his alibi, which was corroborated, the video ruled out Amarhanov as the shooter. He walked with a pronounced limp. The agile shooter bolted from the scene.
Detectives team up with the NFL
Investigators had a relationship with the NFL Films production company. Detectives brought in the grainy video to enhance the quality of it.
Police were unable to get a good picture of what the shooter looked like, but they were able to observe the gun flash and the discharge of a shell casing.
Facing a needle-in-a-haystack search, they were able to retrieve a spent cartridge from a .380 pistol from beneath a metal grid on the sidewalk.
It was sent to the Firearms Identification Unit. “We didn’t have a ballistics match on that,” said Boyle. “But we still had a solid piece of evidence.”
Tracking Patricia McDermott’s daily commute
Detectives learned that in the morning, McDermott boarded a Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA) bus in Montgomery County, where she lived, and commuted into Center City. She got off the bus at 11th St. and then walked five blocks to her job.
The driver of the route was out of the country and unavailable to share any information he might have. While they waited for his return, police interviewed commuters on McDermott’s route.
One witness recalled a man who got off the bus at the same stop as McDermott. She described the suspect to a police sketch artist.
The drawing was released to the public through the press, but no leads emerged. Detectives continued to work at the case, while McDermott was laid to rest.
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“The funeral was oddly quiet in my eyes, because people were so upset,” said Natalie Pompilio, a former staff writer for The Philadelphia Inquirer. “I remember just watching it and thinking, ‘Oh, my God, that could be anybody's mom.’”
Upon the SEPTA bus driver’s return to work, he was interviewed by detectives. He recalled that Juan Covington, a former SEPTA employee, got off at the Center City stop with McDermott on the morning she was killed. Covington had “anger issues,” the driver told detectives.
Investigators learned that Covington had expressed interest in another SEPTA bus driver, Brenwanda Smith, who let him know the feeling wasn’t mutual. She later vanished into thin air.
Juan Covington becomes prime suspect in Patricia McDermott’s murder
Covington was eventually taken into custody after being arrested for carrying a 9mm handgun with an illegally filed-down serial number.
Boyle questioned the suspect and found out that he worked for a hospital waste removal company. His route included Pennsylvania Hospital, McDermott’s place of employment.
Police reviewed Pennsylvania Hospital security footage and saw that Covington was there the day McDermott was murdered.
“He’s wearing the same exact clothes from the original video from the post office,” said Boyle. “I went, ‘Oh, my God, we've got him.’”
Juan Covington's shocking confession
Covington confessed to police that he killed McDermott, but he claimed it was self-defense. He said that McDermott had aimed an X-ray machine at him and sent radiation through his body.
“The court psychiatrist diagnosed him as severely mentally ill and schizophrenic," said criminal defense attorney Chuck Peruto.
Despite that diagnosis, the court determined that Covington's confession would be admissible, said Philly Homicide host Chris McMullin.
The case took a dramatic turn when the gun with the obscured serial number was connected to other murders. A subsequent search of Covington’s home turned up an arsenal of handguns and rifles.
The weapons were tied to the murders of Rev. Thomas Lee Devlin and Odies Bosket, as well as the shootings of David Stewart and William Bryant, who both survived.
“We thought the person responsible for Patricia McDermott’s death was one individual, an isolated incident,” said Ross. “We had no idea it was something connected to a serial killer.”
Covington believed the minister put a curse on him. “He believed the other victims... were devils, so he had to shoot them,” Boyle said. Covington revealed nothing about Brenwanda Smith, whose case is still ongoing.
For the assaults on Stewart and Bryant. Covington got 20 to 40 years in prison. For the murders of Devlin, Bosket, and McDermott, Covington received three life sentences without the chance of parole.
To learn more about “The Center City Devil” case, watch Philly Homicide, airing Saturdays at 9 p.m. on Oxygen.
