Either way, one thing is for sure - someone wanted to send White a message, and he didn't just poke him to do it.
White, 22, was shot once in the chest about 7:45 p.m. in front of a house on Hadfield Street near 51st. He was pronounced dead shortly after at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania.
Cops said two men had gotten out of a brown car and argued briefly with White before they shot him and drove away.
Upper Darby Police Superintendent Michael Chitwood said the vehicle had been carjacked on 69th Street in Upper Darby about 15 minutes earlier.
After the killing, the same car was found set ablaze at an industrial park in Yeadon, Chitwood said.
Chitwood said that Upper Darby police had been searching for White because witnesses said he might have been the getaway driver for John "Jizz" Gordon, who allegedly fired 13 shots into a crowd outside the Venue Bar on July 18 after an earlier fight in the bathroom.
Police said that Gordon killed Randy Campbell, 23, who is not believed to have been his intended target. He then jumped in a car believed to have been driven by his friend, White, police said.
"We were looking to question [White] about that," Chitwood said. "Obviously, we can't question him now."
White had been in the news since June, when his ex-girlfriend and the mother of his child, London Eley, 19, was arrested for allegedly writing on her Facebook wall, "I will pay somebody a stack [$1,000] to kill my baby father."
Timothy Bynum, 18, of Darby, allegedly wrote back: "say no more. what he look like. where he be at. need that stack 1st ima mop that bull."
Bynum was arrested along with Eley, and police said they found a loaded gun in his house.
According to the arrest affidavit, Eley's Facebook tirade was prompted by a violent clash between her and White on May 23. During the fight, Eley allegedly slapped White in his face and told him that he'd never see his daughter again. She left his house and 15 minutes later, solicited his death via Facebook, police said.
In response to the deadly "status update," several people asked if she was sure she wanted him dead.
"DEAD! HATE HIM," she allegedly wrote back.
When White saw the post he went to police. In an interview with NBC 10 after Eley's arrest, White said he took the threat seriously.
"You don't play with anybody's life," said White, who allowed only his feet to be filmed. "I just took it upon myself to go ahead and to make sure that I wouldn't have any harm done to me."
Both Eley and Bynum were held for trial Monday by Judge Patrick Dugan.
Upon news of White's death, Eley's attorney, Gerald Stein, said it may have been best that his client hasn't been able to make her $35,000 bail.
"Because we know where she was, we know where she wasn't," he said. "I recognize the coincidence of the timing of this situation, but that's not evidence."
Both Stein and Bynum's attorney, Lopez Thompson, contend that the pair were just joking around about the hit on Facebook.
"It wasn't a wise thing for him to do, but he had no intent to do anything," Thompson said of Bynum. "Unfortunately, someone else had other plans."
White was due in court yesterday himself for a driving-under-the-influence arrest he logged in Philadelphia a day after the Upper Darby shooting, according to court records. He never showed, and a bench warrant was issued for his arrest.
White lived with his mother, daughter and two younger sisters on Webster Street near 51st, around the corner from where he was killed.
Neighbors described him as "respectful" and a loving father to his only child, Serenity, the daughter he shared with Eley.
Ansa Wilson-Bey, 64, said that White hadn't been seen around the block after Eley's arrest, and she figured that his mother had sent him away to keep him safe.
Recently though, Wilson-Bey said that White had returned to the neighborhood.
"I'd always tell him to watch his back," she said. "He'd say he was being safe."
Neighbor Dawn McDowell, 37, said that White was a doting father to his daughter, whose name he had tattooed across his neck in red ink. The two had the same birthday, neighbors said.
McDowell said that White was 3 years old - like his daughter will be next month - when his own father died.
"It's like the cycle continues in the most horrific way," she said.
