DOVER, Del. — A suspected serial killer accused in the deaths of several people in Delaware and Pennsylvania has been indicted on 41 felony charges, including two murders, authorities said Tuesday.
Delaware prosecutors allege that Keith Gibson, 39, killed two people and injured four others in Delaware during a weekslong crime spree earlier this year.
Gibson is also a suspect in several murders committed in Pennsylvania this year, including the killing of his mother and the robbery and slaying of a north Philadelphia doughnut shop manager.
“This indictment lays out one of the most vicious, staggering crime sprees I’ve seen in my career,” Delaware Attorney General Kathleen Jennings said in a statement issued Tuesday. “It is even more disturbing to think, based on what investigators have revealed in Pennsylvania, that this may just be the tip of the iceberg.”
Gibson, who was previously convicted of manslaughter and possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony, was released from prison on Dec. 20 after a 13-year sentence. Authorities said Gibson violated the terms of his probation and was held in custody briefly before being released again on April 27.
Investigators allege that Gibson shot and killed Leslie Ruiz-Basilio, 28, during a robbery at a cellphone store in Elsmere, Delaware, on May 15, then stole her car.
Gibson then shot and killed Ronald Wright, 42, during a June 5 street robbery in Wilmington, also shooting another man, prosecutors said.
Earlier that same day, Christine Lugo, 40, was accosted by a gunman as she opened up her Philadelphia doughnut shop. Philadelphia police allege that Gibson pushed her inside at gunpoint, took about $300, shot her in the head and fled. She was pronounced dead at the scene.
Authorities believe Gibson robbed or assaulted three other people in Delaware, and tried to murder one of them, over the following three days. He was arrested June 8 in connection with the robbery of a Wilmington Rite-Aid during which a clerk was pistol-whipped.
Authorities in Pennsylvania also plan to charge Gibson in shooting death of his mother, Christine Gibson, 54. She was found shot to death in February. He is also a suspect in a January double murder in Philadelphia’s Germantown neighborhood.
“We are still awaiting extradition for him before we can charge him with the murders he committed in Philadelphia,” Officer Tanya Little, a Philadelphia police spokesperson, said in an email Tuesday.
It was not immediately clear whether Gibson has an attorney who could comment on his behalf.
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