Search Continues for Shooter

Authorities continued to look for suspects Saturday after a man involved in a custody dispute with a member of the Philadelphia radical group MOVE was found shot to death in his car.

"We have several leads, but no specific individual," said Sgt. Jack Smith, a spokesman for the Burlington County Prosecutor's Office.

John Gilbride was killed early Friday, the day he was scheduled to have his first unsupervised visit with his son.

The FBI was working with the prosecutor's office and Maple Shade police to determine whether the killing was related to the dispute over the 6-year-old.

Federal agents are helping investigate a motive or possible suspects, NBC 10 reported

Gilbride, a 34-year-old airline employee, had been fighting with his former wife, Alberta Africa, a MOVE member, over visitation with their son. The boy lives with his mother in Cherry Hill, a few miles from Maple Shade.

A Philadelphia judge had decided that Gilbride should have unsupervised time with his son.

MOVE -- the radical group whose 1985 clash with police left 11 people dead and 61 homes burned to the ground -- vowed to fight the order, saying it would not turn the boy over to Gilbride.

Alberta Africa on Friday blamed Gilbride's death on the government. Smith said that the prosecutor's office had not interviewed her as of late Saturday afternoon.

MOVE got its start in the early 1970s as a group that shunned modern conveniences, preached equal rights for animals and rejected government authority.

In the decades since the 1985 fire, MOVE re-emerged, but with a less radical agenda. Today the group is most closely identified with its support of Mumia Abu-Jamal, the convicted cop killer whose writings from Pennsylvania's death row have made him an international cause celebre.

The name MOVE does not stand for anything in particular.

Article continues below

---

advertisement

---

Author: Copyright 2002 by NBC 10. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.