Jan. 25--Homicide detectives are investigating whether a North Philadelphia store clerk was killed Monday night because she was a potential witness in a murder investigation, police sources said Tuesday.
Rosemary Fernandez-Rivera had been interviewed numerous times by police as a possible witness in the killing of a man two months ago outside the Caribe Mini Market at Mutter and Westmoreland Streets, where she worked the cash register, said police sources and the woman's family.
The 33-year-old Mexican immigrant lived alone above the store, and investigators believed she witnessed the slaying of Louis Chevere, 22, from her apartment window.
Last week, Fernandez-Rivera was brought to Police Headquarters to review suspects' mug shots, her family said. It is unclear whether Fernandez-Rivera assisted police in the investigation.
An arrest warrant had been issued for a man wanted in Chevere's killing, and on Monday, the Philadelphia Daily News published a photo of the fugitive.
About 7:40 that night, a man wearing a ski mask strode into the market and, without a word, walked past two other employees, opened a counter door leading to where Fernandez-Rivera was working the cash register, and shot her four times in the chest.
Fernandez-Rivera died at Temple University Hospital.
The gunman fled on foot without taking any cash, Homicide Capt. James Clarke said during a Tuesday news conference.
"It was an execution," Clarke said. "He went directly to his target and just executed her."
Clarke would not comment on whether investigators believed Fernandez-Rivera was killed as an act of witness retaliation. He said officers were reviewing other motives, including an altercation with drug dealers on the block.
He described the suspect as Hispanic, 5 feet, 8 inches tall, 175 pounds, wearing a gray hooded sweatshirt and a black ski mask.
Police said they were searching for surveillance video.
On Tuesday afternoon, Fernandez-Rivera's sister and brother-in-law stood in front of the gated corner store where neighbors lit candles and wrote notes on a memorial to the slain woman.
"There was a previous murder here before," said her brother-in-law, who did not want his name used, saying he feared for his own safety. "She was a witness to the murder. Last week, she was taken to the police station -- she did not want to go . . . to identify two of the killers. We don't know if this was part of the retaliation, because supposedly one of the guys is still out there."
This month, police issued an arrest warrant for Jorge "J Rock" Aldea, 22, of Philadelphia, in the killing. He was described as 5-foot-8 and 175 pounds. Aldea, who has a lengthy criminal record involving drugs and violence, remains at large.
Fernandez-Rivera -- known as Reyna Aguirre-Alonso to her family and friends -- had worked at the store for about two years. She was not married and had no children. She sent money home weekly to her ailing mother in Mexico. She often worked seven days a week, opening and closing the market.
"Every day, all day, she had no time for nothing, no social life," said Gladys Martinez, 53, who lives a few doors from the store.
Fernandez-Rivera would sometimes bring a photo album downstairs into the store to show off family pictures, Martinez said.
She practiced her English by singing the lyrics of the Madonna songs she liked to play in the store.
"She was a great person, funny, caring, outgoing, always smiling," Martinez said. "I just don't understand, she had no problems with nobody."
Martinez said she heard the four shots Monday night and, from her porch, called out to one of the store employees, who came running out.
"What happened?" she said she yelled.
"What do you think? They shot Reyna," she said the distraught man answered.
Fernandez-Rivera had talked about being scared in the days before her killing, Martinez said.
"She said police would show her pictures. She was nervous, feeling something was going to happen to her. She was afraid to speak."
Hermes Crespo, 22, stood in the crowd in front of the minimarket Tuesday. He was friends with Chevere and had talked with Fernandez-Rivera after his friend's slaying.
"She said she knew who did it, that she saw it, but that she wasn't telling anyone who did it," he said. "She was scared of getting involved."
Police say that about 11 p.m. Nov. 24, Aldea killed Chevere in a dispute over drug corners.
Chevere had gotten out of prison and was selling drugs on the 3300 block of Mutter, investigators said. He had written his street name, Omer, on signs on the street. Aldea sold drugs one block down, on Mascher Street. He allegedly shot Chevere once in the chest, police said.
The intersection of Mutter and Westmoreland has long been a hot spot for drugs and violence, police said.
Antonio Rodriguez, known as the Kensington strangler, was caught on Mutter a year ago. A memorial to a man known as Macho, who was shot to death in 2009, stands on the street.
Next to it is a large sidewalk memorial to Chevere, shaped like an altar, with a crucifix and rosary beads near an empty bottle of Hennessy cognac and a picture of Chevere holding his 2-year-old son.
Friends had scribbled notes on the memorial. "I saw u grow up as a kid, ur Dad fixed all my cars," one wrote.
Stephanie Mayweather, executive director of the nonprofit East Division Crime Victim Services on the 3300 block of Mascher Street, said her organization had assisted 422 neighborhood victims of violence in the last three months.
On Tuesday, Lizasuain DeJesus, 41, knelt to light a candle for Fernandez-Rivera.
"She was a good woman," she said, wiping away a tear.
Contact staff writer Mike Newall at 215-854-2759, [email protected], or @MikeNewall on Twitter.
Copyright 2012 - The Philadelphia Inquirer
