Amin Hurst pleads guilty to four counts of murder and escape from prison

Just last year, when Amin Hurst was jailed and charged with four murders, he was willing to army-crawl across prison floors, climb over barbed wire, and then flee for more than a week – all in an attempt to avoid accountability for his crimes, which would leave him behind bars for most of his life.

On Friday, Hurst, who is now 20 years old, appeared before a judge and admitted everything. Murder, robbery, escape. all

“Guilty,” Hearst repeated a total of 28 times while shackled in a wooden chair.

This scene was more than three years in the making. Hurst was arrested in 2021, when he was just 16 years old, and charged with murdering four people and committing two armed robberies between late 2020 and early 2021. Law enforcement said he was associated with the Young Bag Chasers and Young Face Arrangers, two allies Gangs in West and North Philadelphia are responsible for the spate of violenceand was often ready to stand behind a gun to take aim at his enemies.

He first shot and killed 20-year-old Daiva Scruggs, an aspiring comedian and social media influencer. On the morning of December 24, 2020, Hurst followed Scruggs as he walked to catch a bus to work at Home Depot before shooting him at least 16 times. Scruggs was filming himself on Instagram Live when Hearst ambushed him, and hundreds of people watched as shots rang out and the camera panned skyward.

Then, on March 11, Hearst opened fire on a group of young people associated with rival group “0toda4″ in the 1400 block of North 76th Street. He snuck up on them from a back alley before unleashing a barrage of bullets that struck four men, killing two: 24-year-old Naquan Smith and 17-year-old Tamir Brown.

In the days that followed, according to a video released in court, Hurst sent one of Brown’s friends a voice message on Instagram, telling him to “pick up your men” and mimicking the teenager’s last words with a laugh: “I got hit! They hit me on the neck!”

He laughed about the crime again during a prison call the following month, the video showed, telling the young woman that the shooting was “the funniest gag I’ve ever done.”

According to Assistant District Attorney Anthony Vosey, a week after the Brown and Smith murders, Hurst and his YBC colleagues received word that one of their longtime rivals on 39th Street was about to be released from prison. On the night of March 18, 2021, he and his team drove up to Curran Fromhold Correctional Facility and spotted a young man waiting outside the prison gates. Assuming he was their target, they chased him through the restaurant’s parking lot, then shot him 20 times before running him over with their car, Voci said.

But instead, he says, Hearst mistakenly killed 20-year-old Rodney Hargrove — which had nothing to do with their enmity.

“This was a case of mistaken identity,” Wotzi told Common Pleas Court Judge J. Scott O’Keefe.

Hearst knew it too. In two separate video calls from jail, Hearst laughed as he mimed shooting Hargrove.

“I thought it was Sid,” he said, recalling their rival target. “However, we found the wrong (person).”

Hurst was arrested in April 2021 and charged with those murders and two separate robberies at gunpoint in West Philly. But this was not the end of his crimes.

In May 2023, while awaiting trial, Hearst initiated a citywide manhunt when he and another man escaped from prison. Assistant District Attorney Brett Zakeosian said Friday that Hearst had been on the run for 10 days, spending most of that time hiding in New York.

According to Zakeosian, during the tour, Hearst even rented a recording studio with his brother in Manhattan and recorded a new rap song, which he later released online.

Vocsi said investigators were pleased with the outcome of the case, mostly because the families of Hearst’s many victims would not have to endure a lengthy trial.

“While we are delighted,” he said, “it is still difficult to imagine that four young lives were snuffed out by someone who was 16 years old. This is a tragedy in itself.”

And the prison calls, in which Hearst laughed about the murders, he said, showed “a level of callousness and ruthlessness that is frightening.”

Hearst last c a long line of BBK/UFA members who will be convicted several shootings over the past year. In all, he pleaded guilty to four counts of third-degree murder, two counts of attempted murder, escape, multiple counts of conspiracy and illegal possession of a weapon and related offenses.

His attorney, Gary Silver, declined to comment Friday. It was not possible to contact the relatives of the deceased.

All day Hurst sat quietly and expressionless, looking away from time to time to bite his nails. His mother did the same from the courtroom gallery, hands folded tenderly under her chin as she watched her son confess to all he had done.

At the end of the hearing, Hearst stood up and willingly returned to custody. He is expected to be sentenced in two weeks.