Quadir Sheaff was just 21 years old when he stepped out of a store in Philadelphia's Tioga-Nicetown neighborhood on November 2, 2020, and was shot dead. More than six years later, his family is still waiting to learn who killed him, and why.
Sheaff had gone to the store to get medication for a sick family member when an altercation inside turned violent, according to 6abc Philadelphia. He was shot after leaving the store in the 4300 block of North 15th Street just before 8 p.m. that night, the station reports. He was rushed to Temple University Hospital, where he died minutes later.
Police still have no suspects or persons of interest in the case, per the station's report. The reward for information leading to an arrest and conviction has since been raised to $50,000, and the outlet urges anyone with information to call the Citizens Crime Commission at 215-546-TIPS, noting that calls will remain anonymous.
A Mother's Plea for Closure
Sheaff's mother described a neighborhood worn down by violence that has never been answered for. “There's been a lot of violent crimes in the community. And a lot of unsolved homicides. It's time for that to change. A lot of families are broken,” she said, according to the same report.
She has said that simply knowing what happened to her son would bring her a measure of peace. “I would finally get to know what happened. I would finally feel like justice has been served,” she said, per the station's account. A case page on Philly Unsolved Murders adds that Sheaff adored his 22-month-old son, and separately lists the Philadelphia Police Department's own tip line, 215-686-TIPS (8477), along with an online submission option, saying tipsters there may also remain anonymous.
A Change.org petition tied to the case asks the Philadelphia District Attorney's Office to give the investigation renewed attention, asserting that there were witnesses to the crime and noting that Sheaff left behind a child who had to grow up without his father.
Where Philadelphia's Clearance Numbers Stand
Sheaff was killed during a stretch when Philadelphia's ability to solve homicides had cratered. The clearance rate fell to 41.8% in 2021, the lowest on record, amid an unprecedented spike in shootings, according to an analysis by The Inquirer. That analysis found that nearly 800 killings between 2021 and 2023 had still not resulted in an arrest.
City investigators have reportedly made significant gains since then, though the two most recent figures on record differ. The Inquirer reported that the clearance rate this year has hovered between 86% and 91%, the highest since 1984, when it stood at 95%. The Trace, meanwhile, reported that the share of homicides solved or otherwise cleared rose from 45% in 2016 to 82% in 2025, and that of the 222 homicides committed last year, 157 — nearly 71% — have been solved, up from 263 of 562, or about 47%, in 2021.
The Inquirer also reported that through August, police arrested a suspect within a week in about 31% of cases, up from just 15% three years earlier, and that the department's network of real-time crime cameras grew from 3,625 in 2024 to 7,309 this year. The Trace separately noted that Philadelphia's clearance rate for nonfatal shootings climbed 15 percentage points over the past decade, to more than 40%, and that the city had recorded 93 homicides as of July 12, 2026, down 23% from the same period the year before and nearly 70% from 2021. By comparison, The Trace reported that New York City, Chicago, Houston and Baltimore posted clearance rates between 65% and 79% last year, while Washington, D.C. stood at 85% and Los Angeles at 101%.
None of those citywide gains have yet reached Sheaff's case. For his mother, the wait continues alongside the families of hundreds of others still hoping for a knock on the door.
