A Philadelphia man who stabbed two security guards outside Macy’s in Center City, killing one of them, pleaded guilty to murder and other related charges Thursday.
Tyrone Tunnell, 31, tried to steal two hats from the store at 13th and Market streets on Dec. 4, 2023, authorities said. Two guards stopped Tunnell and took the items back, but he was allowed to leave. He returned minutes later with a knife and fatally attacked guard Eric Harrison, prompting fellow guard Christian Mitchell to intervene.
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Tunnell pleaded guilty to third-degree murder, recklessly endangering another person, attempted murder, assault, tampering with evidence and other related offenses, according to court filings. He faces decades in prison, and a sentencing date is set for February.
Mitchell, 24, was stabbed multiple times but survived, while Harrison, 27, was stabbed in the neck and later died from his injuries. Neither were armed, and Harrison’s mother said he was not one of the guards who stopped Tunnell for theft.
Tunnell initially fled the store but was arrested later that day at the Market-Frankford line’s Somerset Station in Kensington.
Last December, Philadelphia Police Commissioner John Stanford said the store was a shoplifting hotspot and saw more than 250 theft reports in 2023. In January, Harrison’s family filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the retailer for failing to take preventative measures that could have saved his life, including allowing Tunnell to leave Macy’s without any consequences after the attempted theft.
“How do you make sense of that?” Harrison’s father Eric Coates said at the time. “I truly believe this tragedy could have been prevented if proper protocols were in place. Our son would have still been here. We were robbed of grandchildren, we [were] robbed to see the full transformation of the man (Harrison) was in the process of becoming.”
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