Ballistics from a 2024 Delaware County shooting have now tied a Philadelphia man to a long-unsolved 2018 road-rage killing in Cheltenham Township, prosecutors say. Jihad Henderson, 38, is facing first- and third-degree murder charges, along with a weapons count, in the death of 29-year-old Rithina Torn. Investigators say shell casings entered into the National Integrated Ballistic Information Network (NIBIN) connected the two crime scenes and pointed back to a Glock that Henderson legally bought in 2017.
The deadly encounter unfolded around 9:30 p.m. on Oct. 15, 2018, at Dewey Road and Front Street in the Melrose Park section of Cheltenham Township, when Torn, riding as a passenger in a Honda, stepped toward another vehicle and was shot multiple times, according to The Philadelphia Inquirer. Police released surveillance stills and chased down tips, but the trail went cold. Torn later died at Einstein Medical Center, and authorities offered a reward as detectives tried to put a name to the shooter, the paper reported.
The break came in October 2024, when Springfield Township police responded to gunfire behind the Target at the Springfield Shopping Center on the 800 block of Baltimore Pike. Surveillance footage and evidence from that scene helped investigators identify Henderson as a suspect, and he surrendered to police in November 2024, Patch reported. He was charged in that Delaware County incident with attempted murder, aggravated assault and related offenses, according to the outlet. Investigators later obtained a warrant and searched a vehicle tied to the case, uncovering additional evidence linked to the shooting.
Ballistics tie the cases together
Detectives entered shell casings from the 2024 Delaware County shooting into NIBIN and got a hit: a match to casings recovered at the 2018 scene where Torn was killed, a forensic comparison that prosecutors say showed the rounds came from the same firearm, NBC10 reported. That match, prosecutors say, tied the weapon to a Glock .40 that Henderson purchased in 2017 and became a key piece of evidence in filing murder charges in the once-cold case.
Charges, conviction and custody
Montgomery County prosecutors announced this week that Henderson is now charged with first-degree murder, third-degree murder and possessing an instrument of crime in Torn’s killing, according to Daily Voice. Court records show Henderson was convicted on April 24, 2026, of aggravated assault causing serious bodily injury, simple assault and possessing an instrument of crime in the 2024 Delaware County case and is scheduled to be sentenced June 29, the outlet reported. He is currently held in the Delaware County Prison on that earlier matter while the Montgomery County homicide case moves forward.
Delaware County District Attorney Tanner Rouse praised the cross-county work that tied the shootings together, calling the arrest “a testament to the power of inter-agency cooperation,” and credited coordination between the two offices for the breakthrough, Daily Voice reported.
Henderson’s arraignment on the murder counts is still pending, and a preliminary hearing is expected to follow, prosecutors said. He remains in custody on the Delaware County case while the Montgomery County charges are prepared for court, authorities told NBC10. Prosecutors added that evidence presented during the 2026 Delaware County trial, including Henderson’s own testimony about carrying the firearm, was used in support of the new Montgomery County filing.
The development highlights how NIBIN can breathe life into cold cases by matching unique tool marks on spent shell casings and tying a single gun to multiple crime scenes, according to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. ATF materials note that NIBIN provides automated ballistic-image comparisons and investigative leads that can jump across municipal and county lines.
