Son of homeless advocate charged with murder of homeless man in Pottstown [updated]

POTTSTOWN — A 15-year-old from Stowe who is the son of the executive director of the homeless advocacy agency Beacon of Hope has been charged with first-degree murder in the daylight shooting of a homeless man just yards from the borough police station.

Thomas James Niarhos of East Race Street is accused of shooting 39-year-old Jeremiah Waylon Hawkins, who was experiencing homelessness, near the Norfolk Southern train tracks at South Hanover Street and Security Plaza, which is also the hub for the Pottstown Area Rapid Transit bus routes.

The motive in the shooting may be related to an alleged sexual assault of Niarhos’ girlfriend four months earlier, according to investigators.

Court records indicate Niarhos told police on July 13 that Hawkins had raped his 16-year-old girlfriend, whose name has been withheld, behind the dumpster in Security Plaza near the Norfolk-Southern railroad tracks. Police investigated that accusation but received no cooperation from the girl’s family, and her mother told police the next day the family did not wish to press charges.

Police were dispatched at 12:07 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 22, and arrived to find Hawkins lying on South Hanover Street with an obvious gunshot wound to the head, according to a press release issued jointly Saturday morning by Montgomery County District Attorney Kevin Steele and Pottstown Police Chief Michael Markovich.

Hawkins was transported to Pottstown Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

Niarhos was being held by witnesses when police arrived and he was immediately taken into custody by police.

Several witnesses told police Niarhos dropped the gun after shooting Hawkins and started running through Security Plaza toward the parking lot of The Blue Elephant restaurant before he was restrained by bystanders until police arrived.

A .40 caliber Smith & Wesson semi-automatic firearm was recovered on the scene, according to the press release issued by the D.A.’s office. Detectives later determined the firearm belonged to the defendant’s father, who declined to make a statement to MediaNews Group when contracted on Saturday.

However, the accused’s father, told police he kept his gun in a locked nightstand in his bedroom, but kept the key in another location in the bedroom, according to court records. He told police he found a note in his son’s bedroom saying he planned to run away, along with a packed bag of clothing and a phone charger.

A joint homicide investigation by Pottstown Police and Montgomery County Detectives found through multiple witness interviews and review of surveillance video that Niarhos had sought out Hawkins, and the two males were standing close together arguing when Niarhos extended his arm toward Hawkins.

Hawkins, who was on a bike and holding a spare tire, swung it at Niarhos attempting to knock the gun out of his hand, but Niarhos fired a single shot at Hawkins’ face, and the victim fell immediately. Niarhos fired a second time, then dropped the firearm and walked away, when he was detained by bystanders, the press release said.

According to the affidavit of probable cause, as Niarhos was being escorted to the police station, an officer’s body camera recorded him shouting at first responders trying to save Hawkins, “he’s a rapist, don’t be sorry for him” and “he raped a 15-year-old girl, don’t help him.”

An autopsy was conducted on Hawkins’ body by Dr. Khalil Wardak, a forensic pathologist with the Montgomery County Coroner’s Office, which found that Hawkins had been shot once in the side of his face at close range.

Dr. Wardak determined the cause of death was a gunshot wound to the head and the manner of death was homicide.

Niarhos was charged as an adult with first-degree murder, third-degree murder, possessing a firearm by a minor, possessing an instrument of crime and other charges.

Niarhos was arraigned by Magisterial District Judge Margaret Hunsicker on Nov. 22. No bail is available for first-degree murder, and he was remanded to the Montgomery County Youth Center.

Anthony Colavecci, who is also experiencing homelessness, told MediaNews Group Wednesday after the shooting that Hawkins, whom he called “Jay,” was his former roommate “and he saved my life. I slipped in the bathroom and I kept saying I was fine, but he insisted that the ambulance take me to the hospital.”

Colavecci said Hawkins had become addicted to drugs in the last few months.

“I keep trying to tell myself I don’t care, but there are people who will miss him and I’m one of them,” Colavecci said.

A preliminary hearing for Niarhos is scheduled for 11:30 a.m., Nov. 30, before Magisterial District Judge Scott T. Palladino.

The case will be prosecuted by Assistant Chief of Trials Lauren Marvel and Assistant District Attorney Anne O’Connell.

The accused shooter’s father has come to be well-known in the borough since 2020, first as the executive director of the first Al’s Heart Warming Center that operated a winter nighttime warming center for those experiencing homelessness when the COVID epidemic forced area churches which had performed this function to cease operations.

For two years Niarhos, who previously experienced homelessness himself, ran the center out of the former St. Aloysius parish school on North Hanover Street. When that arrangement ended in 2022, the agency, now named Beacon of Hope, operated a warming center in St. Paul’s United Church of Christ, which brought them into conflict with the borough as a zoning violation that was ultimately withdrawn.

Niarhos has been the local face of the agency through its efforts to use $1.3 million in federal COVID funds to win the 2022 zoning approval for the construction of a permanent 45-bed shelter at Glasgow and West High streets along the western border of the borough.

However, problems with the property title have dragged on through the summer, delaying construction, and forcing the agency to pivot to a plan to rotate the overnight warming centers among several churches in town in order to avoid conflict with the borough’s zoning rules.

More recently, Niarhos has been in federal court in Philadelphia, among the witnesses testifying in the lawsuit filed by Community Justice Project and Legal Aid of Southeastern PA to prevent the borough from enacting a planned sweep of the homeless camp on borough-owned property along roughly one-mile stretch of land between the Route 100 and Route 422.