Carissa Bright was 17 when she was shot and killed on the evening of Friday, January 14, 2022, in East Mount Airy, Philadelphia. She was a passenger in a parked white Toyota on the 6500 block of Ross Street when a dark-colored SUV pulled alongside and at least one person inside opened fire into the Toyota. Carissa was taken by private vehicle to Chestnut Hill Hospital but died a short time later. Family remembered her as beautiful, energetic, and intent on becoming a nurse.

Police identified a suspect, Damir Richardson, and investigators concluded Carissa was likely not the intended target; her boyfriend, who was in the car with her, was believed to have been the intended victim. Ballistic evidence linked the Ross Street shooting to a later incident the same night in Gloucester Township, New Jersey, where Richardson allegedly fired at a residence connected to his ex-girlfriend. In July 2022 Richardson was apprehended in California and extradited to Philadelphia; in August 2024 a jury found him guilty of first-degree murder and possession of an instrument of a crime, and he was sentenced to life without parole.

If anyone knew Carissa or was in the East Mount Airy area that night, please share what was seen or heard.