Three men were charged today with criminal homicide in the 2016 shooting death of Robert Colter III in Bristol Borough.

Colter, 20, was shot fatally in the head on Feb. 16, 2016, outside his house in the 500 block of Bath Street.

Charged with killing him are Rodney N. Beaty, 27; Dwayne J. Lynch, 29; and Jaquan N. Wilkerson, 19. All are accused of criminal homicide, conspiracy to commit criminal homicide, and recklessly endangering another person.

Lynch (top photo) and Beaty (middle photo) also are charged with possessing an instrument of crime, illegal possession of a weapon, and providing a firearm to a minor. Wilkerson (bottom photo) was 17 at the time of the shooting.

All three suspects are incarcerated for other offenses: Beaty in the Bucks County Correctional Facility, Lynch in the Federal Detention Center in Philadelphia, and Wilkerson in the State Correctional Institution at Camp Hill. Each is expected to be arraigned by video in the coming days before Magisterial District Judge Frank W. Peranteau Sr. of Bristol.

The charges came 25 days after Beaty gave a statement identifying Lynch and Wilkerson as the gunmen, according to a probable cause affidavit (attached below).

Beaty told Bucks County Detective David Hanks that Lynch and Wilkerson fired multiple shots toward Colter’s home from the intersection of Bath Street and Mifflin Street, the affidavit said. He said the two told him they saw someone fall to the ground as they were shooting.

Colter, a father of twin girls who was studying nursing at Bucks County Community College, was shot around 8 p.m. He died several hours later.

According to the probable cause affidavit:

Beaty said he and Wilkerson were riding through the borough in Lynch’s red Chevrolet when “they observed a vehicle belonging to the girlfriend of a rival parked by Robert Colter’s house.”

Lynch parked on Swain Street, Beaty said, and told Wilkerson to fetch a gun from a backpack in the rear of the vehicle. Lynch and Wilkerson got out – Lynch with a 9mm handgun and Wilkerson with a .40 caliber pistol, Beaty said.

Leaving Beaty in the car, Lynch and Wilkerson walked to Bath and Mifflin, fired several shots, and ran to the Chevrolet, Beaty told police. Police later recovered cartridge casings from 9mm and .40 caliber weapons at the scene.

Beaty told police he drove away, swapping out the Chevrolet for an associate’s Chrysler before the three headed south on Interstate 95. The suspects threw the .40 caliber gun out of the window along I-95, Beaty said, drove to Philadelphia, then returned in the Chrysler to Bucks County.

In April, the 9mm casings from the crime scene were matched to a handgun recovered in Philadelphia during an unrelated search warrant, the affidavit said.

Surveillance video of the shooting showed that at least one person other than Colter had been standing in a location where he or she could have been struck by an errant bullet, the affidavit said.

The case has been assigned for prosecution to Deputy District Attorneys Thomas C. Gannon and David A. Keightly Jr., and is being investigated by the Bristol Borough Police Department and the Bucks County Detectives.

Each charge is an allegation subject to proof in court. Each of the accused is presumed to be innocent unless and until proven guilty in a court of law.

Contact: Thomas C. Gannon, 215.348.6461, tcgannon@buckscounty.org