May 28, 2026
Thom Carroll/For PhillyVoice
Jihad Henderson, 38, has been charged with first-degree murder and related charges for allegedly fatally shooting Rithina Torn during a road-rage incident in Cheltenham in 2018. A ballistics investigation linked the gun in that incident to one Henderson used in a 2024 shooting, police say.
A Philadelphia man who recently was convicted of a shooting a man in Delaware County now has been charged in an unsolved Montgomery County homicide.
A ballistics investigation linked Jihad Henderson, 38, to the death of Rithina Torn, a 29-year-old who was fatally shot eight years ago in a road-rage incident in Cheltenham Township, Montgomery County, prosecutors said Wednesday. Henderson is being held in Delaware County Prison.
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"Torn's murder was unsolved until that ballistics match provided a much-needed lead for our detectives," Montgomery County District Attorney Kevin Steele said in a statement. "I'm very grateful that we can finally share the news with the victim's family that we have arrested Jihad Henderson."
Torn was found suffering from multiple gunshot wounds at the intersection of Dewey Road and Front Street on Oct. 15, 2018. Minutes earlier, a dark-colored sedan driving in the wrong direction on Dewey Street had struck Torn's car, investigators said. When Torn attempted to approach the sedan, he was shot multiple times by the driver, who fled.
Investigators recovered a cartridge casing at the crime scene and entered it into a national ballistic evidence database. A $10,000 reward was offered for information leading to the driver's arrest, but the case remained unsolved for years.
In January 2019, Henderson was stopped by Philadelphia police officers for a window tint violation. He was in possession of a legally-owned Glock .40 caliber handgun, but his license to carry had been revoked, investigators said. The gun was entered as evidence and returned to Henderson a week later.
Five years later, Henderson surrendered to police for shooting a 27-year-old man behind a Target in Springfield Township, Delaware County on Oct. 13, 2024. When bullet cartridges recovered from that shooting were entered into the national database, Montgomery County detectives were notified of a potential ballistics match to the shooting in Cheltenham.
A side-by-side microscopic inspection of cartridges from both shootings confirmed the bullets were fired by the same gun — the firearm Henderson possessed during his 2019 traffic stop, investigators said.
Henderson was convicted of aggravated assault and related charges for the Springfield shooting on April 24. He was charged Tuesday with first-degree murder and related offenses for allegedly killing Torn. He is awaiting a preliminary hearing.
"This arrest is a testament to the power of inter-agency cooperation and our being able to help our colleagues in Montgomery County get justice for Rithina Torn," Delaware County District Attorney Tanner Rouse said in a statement. "That would never have been done without the trust, respect and dialogue between our two offices."
