Juan Covington

On the early morning of May 17, 2005, 48-year-old Patricia "Trish" McDermott, a radiographer for the Pennsylvania Hospital, was found shot to death on Market Street by a passing driver. Preliminary investigations pointed that she had been killed with a .380 pistol, but authorities struggled to determine a possible motive, as none of her money or personal possessions were stolen. After collecting CCTV footage from the surrounding buildings, detectives observed McDermott getting off the bus, followed shortly by a man wearing a baseball cap, light jacket and green pants, who seemed to be stalking her. After following her down the block, the man suddenly pulled out a gun and shot her once in the head, killing McDermott on the spot.

For the next four years, no known crimes were connected to Covington. On May 20, 2003, while walking around Logan, he came across 41-year-old David Stewart. For reasons unknown, Covington pulled out a 9mm pistol and shot at him nine times, paralyzing him from the waist down. Due to this, Stewart was forced to walk on crutches. A similar incident took place on April 26, 2004, when he encountered 32-year-old William Bryant, Jr. on West Ruscomb Street and proceeded to shoot him nine times. Like Stewart, Bryant survived the encounter, but was disabled and now has trouble with speech. For the latter assault, a 32-year-old social worker, Clyde A. Johnson, would be erroneously arrested and kept in detention awaiting trial, where he would remain until Covington was linked to the crimes. The murders would resume on March 7, 2005, when Covington shot and killed 36-year-old Odies Bosket, a clerk for the Revenue Department who was en route to pick up his daughter from a nursery in Logan. Another man, 37-year-old Morris Wells, was charged with the murder and would also be kept in detention until the real killer's capture.

Covington's first known murder occurred on August 19, 1998, when he used a SIG Sauer to shoot 49-year-old Rev. Thomas Lee Devlin, a Baptist Pastor (who he was in no way related to although this has been falsely reported by multiple media outlets without correction), 13 times in his church on Old York Road.

Apart from his known murders, Covington is considered a suspect in at least two other crimes: the 1997 disappearance of 24-year-old Brenwanda Smith and the 2004 cold case murder of 25-year-old Ann Yuille. Smith, a SEPTA bus driver who had rebuked his romantic advances, vanished under mysterious circumstances after the pair had an argument in Hunting Park on February 18, 1997. She has not been found, and remains missing to this day. In the latter case, Yuille, a hospital worker, was found shot to death on Ninth Street and Girard Avenue in North Philadelphia on May 7, 2004. Authorities consider Covington a possible suspect because he may have encountered her while working there.

Juan Covington (born March 3, 1962) is an American serial killer responsible for at least five shootings in neighborhoods of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania from 1998 to 2005, three of which were fatal. Motivated by delusions brought on from his paranoid schizophrenia, Covington was convicted and given three life terms which he is serving to this day.

Juan Covington was born on March 3, 1962, in Philadelphia's Logan neighborhood, one of two nearly identical brothers. His childhood was reportedly normal until 1990, when his father died. After that point, Covington frequently fell into depressive moods and began taking medication, but after a few years, he suddenly declared himself "cured". In contrast to his claims, he started exhibiting strange behavior, ranging from wearing military fatigues and patrolling around his neighborhood for unseen forces to refusing to bathe or wash himself. According to his family members, at one Christmas, he kept gazing at the decorated tree because he thought it was moving. Despite this, he was considered a mostly upstanding citizen who worked as a bus driver for SEPTA for around 18 years, before switching to hauling medical waste for local hospitals. According to neighbors, Covington was a quiet, yet easily offended man, but was otherwise considered fairly normal.