Reward increases in stabbing death of Drexel Hill 15-year-old

UPPER DARBY, Pennsylvania (WPVI) -- The Delaware County Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 27 has upped the reward for a tip that leads to the arrest of the person who fatally stabbed a teenager.

The victim, 15-year-old Michael Garr of Drexel Hill, was a 10th grader at the Upper Darby School District.

The FOP is now offering a $10,000 reward in his death. Anyone with information is asked to call Upper Darby police detectives at 484-574-1157.

While no suspects have been identified, police are looking for two people who may be witnesses to the crime.

Officials released the following photo of a couple holding hands on Sunday.

Authorities say the pair were walking hand-in-hand on Bridge Street, passing Anne Street, and headed toward Dennison Avenue, at 9:39 p.m. Friday.

The stabbing happened just after 9:30 p.m. on the 200 block of Bridge Street.

Officials say Garr was stabbed in the neck and went into cardiac arrest. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

"Please continue to hold our family in your hearts and prayers as we navigate through this tragedy," said Garr's uncle, Mike Peabody. "For every single person who has contributed to the GoFundMe, and the fundraiser at Gambol's G Cafe who sent food flowers and condolences, we are very appreciative of the generosity."

Action News spoke to Breanna Pierre, who said she just happen to be walking along Bridge Street when Garr was stabbed.

"Some kid fall to the ground, a man running, and a man come out of a car to help the kid on the ground, and I'm like, 'oh my God.' I was going to go over there and see what happened, but then I saw this blood," said Pierre.

Pierre said she was too far away to be able to describe the person responsible.

"It's terrible," said Superintendent Timothy Bernhardt. "How do you get to a point where kids this age can commit some type of act of violence like this? There's no words to explain it. Our hearts go out to the family, we ask everyone to keep the family in their thoughts and prayers."

Members of the community say they're equally devastated by this tragedy.

"As many prayers as we can get is probably the best that we can ask for because we're all heartbroken," said Chris Kolody from Upper Darby. "The Garr family is such a great family, and I think ultimately we're just speechless."

"Such an outgoing man. Loved baseball, (he was) an avid baseball player, and loved fishing," Kolody continued.

The tightly knit Upper Darby community is doing what it can to help. Gambol's Big G Cafe is collecting donations for the Garr family.

"Everyone that comes in here has literally been coming in here for like 30 plus years, so everyone knows everyone. It's like a big family," said Mallory Cook, the manager of the cafe.

Police are also asking anyone who lives near Bridge Street along the Baltimore Pike corridor in Clifton to please send any surveillance video from Friday between 8 p.m. to 11 p.m. to info@udpd.org.

The Upper Darby School District released the following statement on Saturday afternoon:

Earlier today, we learned about the tragic death of an Upper Darby High School student. We will be offering student service support to students in our schools on Monday. Our thoughts and prayers are with the family and community.

As a reminder, the Safe2Say Something system is available to anyone who would like to report an incident or is in need of support. Please see the link below:

https://www.safe2saypa.org/