GUNCRAZY: Son In Kabul Safer Than Mom In Mantua?

Philadelphia was very much on Gregory’s mind before his mother’s death, even as bombs exploded and people died at the hands of the Taliban.

He took a few moments to do what military people do when they’re far from loved ones. He got on the Internet and ordered his mother bubble bath and lotion for her birthday. He included a note:

Mummy, happy birthday to the best mother and grandmother in the world. Hope you will live to see many, many healthy and happy birthdays.

Gregory paid extra to get the gift delivered to his mother’s home in West Philadelphia the day before her 65th birthday on March 4.

But three days before that, on March 1, just after 1 a.m., Hanchard was slain with a co-worker, as the pair sat in a car.

Police detectives believe the killer first killed the co-worker, Duane Bell, 41, in a dispute before firing on Hanchard. Bell was shot while sitting in the driver’s seat; Hanchard was executed while sitting in the back seat of the maroon Lincoln.

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INQUIRER: An evening stabbing in Germantown and an afternoon shooting in South Philadelphia have raised this year’s Philadelphia homicide total to 71. Just before 10 last night, a man was found in the first block of East Johnson Street with a stab wound to the chest, police said. He was pronounced dead less than a half-hour later at Albert Einstein Medical Center. Police this morning were still trying to determine his identity as well as any suspects or motive. In the other homicide, Tajah Fairey, 18, was shot as many as 10 times about 3:30 p.m. yesterday at Colorado and McKean Streets, investigators said. He was pronounced dead at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. Detectives were seeking a motive and suspect.