DAILY NEWS: A 20-year-old man was found stabbed to death in his South Philadelphia apartment yesterday afternoon. Anthony DiMatteo was sliced numerous times with a sword after he argued and tussled with two young men he apparently knew, said Homicide Sgt. Tim Cooney. DiMatteo was pronounced dead inside his apartment, on Porter Street near Carlisle, shortly after 2:30 p.m. Investigators found a bloodstained sword discarded in a trash can. MORE

BY MARI A. SCHAEFER INQUIRER STAFF WRITER Another violent weekend in the city has left five people dead and six injured in an 18-hour span. Two shootings involved on-duty Philadelphia police officers. As of last night, there were 291 homicides for the year.Around 1:15 a.m. yesterday, police responded to a 911 call after a woman threatened passengers on a SEPTA bus in North Philadelphia with an 8- to 10-inch butcher knife. Officers found a woman, identified by the Medical Examiner’s Office as Reora Askew, 38, address unknown, in Norris Square Park near Howard and Susquehanna Streets. As police approached, Askew […]

DEAR PHAWKER, Gregory Paige was my little cousin. He just turned 18 years old a month ago. He was with 2 friends that he trusted and treated very well. They shot him to death that night..for what you ask ? they took his life for a chain.. a chain that he wore tht they were jelous of.. a chain that they wanted and that they thought was more important then my cousons life.. my cousin had a good heart.. always with a smile on his face.. loved his family and friends..but just got together with some really bad people.. some […]

BY MENSAH M. DEAN & REGINA MEDINA As block parties and barbecues reverberated across Philadelphia over Labor Day weekend, so did something that is growing just as common in many neighborhoods: homicide. [wow, embarrassingly bad lede.] Eight people were slain from Friday through yesterday, while the death of a ninth person, whose remains were found stuffed in a duffel bag in her home, was being investigated, police said yesterday. A 20-year-old man was shot in the head yesterday morning in an alley adjacent to the M. Hall Stanton Elementary School in North Philadelphia. The man, whose identity was being withheld […]

Four more persons were killed early today in separate and apparently unrelated shootings on the streets of Philadelphia. Two of the shootings occurred in West Philadelphia, one in 3800 block of Haverford Avenue and the other in the 6100 block of Callowhill Street. Another shooting took place near 31st and Norris in Strawberry Mansion and yet another was in the 600 block of E. Wishart Street in Kensington. The incidents occurred between approximately 3 and 4:30 a.m. There were no immediate arrests and homicide detectives continued to investigate. [via INQUIRER]

Police are investigating four different murders that occurred in Philadelphia Wednesday. So far, there is no one in custody for any of them.   Around 8am, police found a 28-year-old woman dead at 524 West Hill Creek Drive, in the Hill Creek Housing Complex in the Crescentville section of the city. Investigators aren’t sure if she was shot or stabbed.   At about 10:30am, police responded to Conlyn Street, near Old York Road in the Fern Rock section, where they found a 30-year-old woman dead from multiple stab wounds.   The third victim died just after 2pm at the Hospital […]

A 15-year-old is the latest victim of gun violence in Philadelphia. The teen was shot in the back at 13th and Cambria Streets on Sunday night. Paramedics rushed him to the hospital, but he died a short time later. No arrests have been made, but police think the shooting was the result of a fight a few block away.The victim is the second teenager shot to death in the city this weekend. Fifteen-year-old Brandon Suttles was killed in Strawberry Mansion early Saturday morning. His killer has not been caught either. [via 6ABC]

BY PETER MUCHA/INQUIRER As midnight approached last night, a period of violence started scattering across the city, leaving three men dead and four others wounded, police said.This year’s murder toll now stands at 262. Shortly after 11:30 p.m., a 21-year-old was shot at least twice in the 1900 block of South Salford Street. Jeffrey Parks was taken to the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, where he was pronounced dead a few minutes before midnight, according to Officer Raul Malveiro. At 11:46 p.m., police found a stabbing victim outside in the 800 block of East Willard Street. The 29-year-old, who […]

BY STEPHANIE FARR/DAILY NEWS In her cramped basement, standing at a workbench lit by a single desk lamp, Lizz Brown stares at the picture of the boy who was slain for his dirt bike, the picture of the boy who didn’t get out of the way fast enough, the picture of the boy whose obituary was left blowing in the street. Then, she paints. Using only items from her local craft store, Brown, 57, of Northeast Philadelphia, has created more than 200 personalized memorial plaques for families of the city’s dead children. Brown buys unfinished, precut wood pieces from a […]

INQUIRER: A series of shootings during a two-hour period this afternoon — at least four separate incidents in different neighborhoods in the city — left five people with sever wounds and two people dead. The first incident occurred about 4 p.m., when a 23-year-old man was found severely wounded in East Germantown. The fourth in the cluster happened shortly after 6 p.m., when a gunfight broke out among spectators attending a youth basketball game at a recreation center in North Philadelphia near Brewerytown. When that exchange was over, a 17-year-old boy was left dying of multiple shots to the torso; […]

“Six months ago, in certain parts of the city, the crime issue would come up, but people had a certain sense that it was happening somewhere else,” Nutter said in an interview. “Now, that doesn’t matter. More and more citizens have finally come to the conclusion that it’s happening in my city, it’s tearing this place apart. We’re embarrassed by it, and we’re increasingly fearful. . . . “And there’s even less confidence that anything is being done that makes any kind of sense to the average person, that says to them, ‘This is our game plan, this is how […]

MYRA MORTON couldn’t give her husband more children, but her younger, thinner romantic rival in Morocco was apparently ripe and ready to conceive.That, according to authorities, was why hubby Jereleigh Morton, 47, was to fly off to the North African country last Sunday — to impregnate his second wife, Zahra Toural, in hopes of having a son. The trip, Montgomery County authorities contend, was why Myra Morton, also 47, killed her husband with two gunshot blasts to the head while he slept in their million-dollar Whitpain Township home early Sunday. Authorities yesterday also contended that the family’s $6 million in […]

Gunfire pelted a car, killing the driver and causing the vehicle to crash early this morning in Southwest Philadelphia. “As he succumbed the car struck two vehicles and as it came to rest, it flipped over on its hood,” said Homicide Sgt. William Gallagher. The incident [NOT pictured, right] happened in the 1000 block of S. 59th Street around 2 a.m. Just before the shooting, the driver had dropped a friend at a house. The friend, who is not a suspect, was questioned by police, Gallagher said. “We don’t know if it was a robbery attempt or if there was […]