Suspect in Petersburg's first murder of 2023 is caught in Hampton

PETERSBURG − The suspect wanted in connection with the city's first homicide of 2023 is now in police custody after 10 months on the run.

Philip Rich, 29, was arrested Friday without incident in Hampton, according to a Petersburg Police statement Saturday. He was picked up by Hampton Police and the U.S. Marshals Regional Fugitive Task Force.

Rich has been charged with first-degree murder and several weapons charges in the March 14, 2023, shooting death of a 29-year-old Petersburg man in the city's Pin Oaks community. That murder was the first of a record 23 homicides last year.

The weapons charges include use of a firearm in the commission of a felony, possession of a firearm by a convicted felon and shooting into an occupied dwelling.

Rich is being held at Riverside Regional Jail in Prince George County pending his first court appearance.

He was the subject of several police requests last year for citizen assistance in locating him, with the most recent coming Dec. 29, 2023.

This article originally appeared on The Progress-Index: Suspect in Petersburg's first murder of 2023 is caught in Hampton