(AP) PHILADELPHIA Three people were injured, including two teens, after gunfire erupted in West Philadelphia Wednesday evening. Police said two teens and a 58-year-old [NOT pictured, right] were shot near the intersection of 57th and Walnut just before 7 p.m. ?We had a group of males in the 100 block of S. 57th Street firing a gun,? said Lieutenant John Walker of the Philadelphia Police. Officials believe the three victims were just innocent bystanders in an act of senseless violence. One 14-year-old was shot in the back and was taken to the Children?s Hospital of Philadelphia in critical condition. Authorities […]

Reginald Branham became a computer whiz while at Overbrook High School in the 1980s, earning a four-year scholarship to Drexel University and becoming a computer executive. In recent years, however, he had turned his attention to fixing up bars. On Christmas night, Branham, 37, was shot dead at his latest bar, Cognac Corner in the 1400 block of South 21st Street in Point Breeze, making him the city’s 402d homicide victim of the year. Police were not talking about a motive yesterday, but on the street outside the bar, those who said they knew Branham spoke of a possible hit […]

(CBS 3) PHILADELPHIA Police are investigating a shooting that left a man dead in South Philadelphia. The shooting marks the city’s 394th homicide. Shots rang out around 10:30 p.m. Monday near 3rd and Titan Streets in South Philadelphia. Police said a 29-year-old man was found shot to death on the street. No arrests have been made and the motive is under investigation. KYW: Drug Dealers Tying Up Loose Ends Before The Holiday Shutdown

Rapper LIL’ WAYNE scrapped a concert in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania recently because he feared for his safety when security at the venue insisted he give up his guns. The tough-talking rap star, real name DWAYNE CARTER, told venue security he had a permit to carry guns for protection and feared they were setting him up for a shoot-out with a longstanding rival when they insisted he left his weapons with them. He tells Complex magazine, “I know the n**ga I’m beefing with is out there, so when security at the show told me, ‘We gonna search y’all,’ it was like, ‘Nah, […]

An 11th grader purportedly despondent about his grades brought a rifle to Springfield High School in Montgomery County this morning, fired high into a wall to frighten other students into a hallway and then shot himself to death, witnesses and officials said.No one else was injured, authorities said. […]Montgomery County District Attorney Bruce Castor told reporters at a late afternoon news conference that Halligan died after putting the barrel of the AK-47 semiautomatic rifle under his chin and firing. Castor said that a suicide note was found in the right front pocket of Halligan’s jeans and that the suicide followed […]

With three weeks left in the year, the homicide tally could top 400 for the first time since 1997. There were 418 killings that year, the last of eight years in the 1990s when there were 400 or more.The total, however, remains far from the record of 500 set in 1990 during the city’s crack epidemic, according to the police department’s public affairs division. The department previously had reported that year’s total as 525.While the high murder rate in the 1990s was widely attributed to the crack epidemic, police, city officials and victims advocates say this year’s shootings don’t follow […]

(KYW 1060) PHILADELPHIA A double shooting at a South Philadelphia strip club left a dancer and customer fighting for their lives. Police said the shooting happened just after 9 p.m. Thursday at the Cheerleaders Gentlemens Club on Front Street and Oregon Avenue. Harmony Adams, a 31-year-old dancer, was shot in the back of the neck by 49-year-old Larry McGuigan, a regular customer, who shot himself in the head. Both victims remain in critical condition at Jefferson University Hospital. There is no word on a motive. Philadelphia Police said they are working to determine whether the shooting was accidental or intentional. […]

Villanova University’s south campus [NOT pictured, left] was on lockdown most of Wednesday morning as police searched the grounds for a gunman who opened fire on three Radnor officers in nearby Bryn Mawr. Six dorms and a cafeteria were located in the school’s lockdown area. Some morning classes were also canceled at the university. Radnor police called off the search at Villanova around 10:20 a.m., and classes resumed about an hour later, university spokeswoman Barbara Clement said.   NBC10: Can’t Help But Feel That ALL of the Main Line Was Let Down Tonight *About this picture

Boy Shot In Groin Outside North Philly Theater PHILADELPHIA — A 16-year-old male was shot in the groin on Wednesday outside of a North Philadelphia movie theater.The shooting occurred outside the Pearl Movie Theatre, located at Oxford and Carlisle streets, next to Temple University’s campus.The boy was reported to be in critical condition.There was no information as to a possible suspect or a motive. NBC10 News reported that the weapon used in the shooting was a Tech-9 semi-automatic pistol. NBC10: Can’t Help Feeling That ALL Of North Philly Was Let Down Tonight PREVIOUSLY: Blatstein Gives Folks Seven More Screens To […]

CHERRY TREE, Pa. – Cherry Tree is as small-town as it gets, with one blink-and-you’ll-miss-it intersection, about 100 families spread across the Susquehanna River valley, and virtually no crime. […] Which is why many folks are mystified about why a councilman wants all homeowners in this peaceful, rural nook of Western Pennsylvania to be armed and ready to defend themselves. His proposed civil protection ordinance, which urges residents to get a gun and learn how to shoot it, will be discussed tonight at a meeting of the Cherry Tree Town Council. The measure would make firearm instruction available at the […]

Kevin Johnson‘s perilous grip on life may come came to an end today because his family has made the gut-wrenching decision to disconnect him from the mechanical life-support system that has been keeping him alive for four days at Frankford Hospital/Frankford division. “I feel right now that Kevin has served his purpose,” said his mother, Janice Jackson-Burke. “I was blessed with three-and-a-half more years with my son, and they weren’t wasted years. “Basically, God called him home now, and that’s where he’s going.” Jackson-Burke said her son fell into a vegetative state on Thursday after his ventilation system failed, and he was […]

Five shootings in city just since Tuesday Police so far have no suspects in any of them By CHRISTINE OLLEY The wave of gun violence in the city continued this week with the shootings of five more people – all wounded since Tuesday. The first crime scene unfolded shortly before 11 p.m. Tuesday on Larchwood Avenue near 59th Street in West Philadelphia. That’s where cops said they found a 19-year-old man who had been shot once in the right ankle. […] Less than an hour later, detectives were trying to determine why a 25-year-old man was shot twice in the […]

Theresa Collins doesn’t own a gun; never fired one. Still, the 54-year-old widow is familiar with the pop of gunfire. Since January, 20 people have been shot to death within a half-mile of her house. A few doors down, her block captain, Lorraine Armstrong, thinks one answer to gun violence in her West Philadelphia neighborhood is for police to stop and frisk suspects. “I don’t know if there is a quick fix, because it didn’t develop overnight. But if you set up a gun-checking point on that corner, Ray Charles could see [the troublemakers] aren’t going to go down that […]