Neighbors: She warned victim

Violence isn't unusual on the gritty blocks around Willard Street near G in Kensington.

So when Gary Caldwell began scuffling with his son's mother outside her rowhouse late Thursday, several neighbors relaxing on their stoops nearby merely looked on curiously, if a bit cautiously.

"He smacked her in the face three times, and she said: 'If you hit me again, I'm going to kill you,' " neighbor Tysheka Moore said.

The woman disappeared into her house for a moment and re-emerged, announcing: "Go ahead, hit me again!" Moore recalled.

Caldwell obliged, and the woman responded with a savage and fatal swipe of a knife that neighbors hadn't noticed in her hand, Moore said.

"Everybody was just shocked," Moore said yesterday, adding that the woman's children witnessed the incident.

Caldwell's death occurred during a bloody citywide four-hour explosion of violence that began near midnight Thursday, claimed the lives of two others and left five more hospitalized with gunshot wounds.

The blood began spilling at 11:38 p.m. Thursday on Salford Street near Chester Avenue in Kingsessing, when tempers flared inside a home-based tattoo business where several customers were waiting to get inked, said Sgt. Charles Coan of the homicide unit.

One man, who already been told by the tattoo artist on several separate occasions to return when he was less busy, got angry when he again was turned away, Coan said. The man brandished a handgun and blasted Jeffrey Parks, 21, another customer, during the argument and fled, Coan said.

Parks, of Wakeling Street near Duffield in East Frankford, was shot multiple times in the chest and was pronounced dead 20 minutes later at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, Coan said.

Police declined to release the identity of his suspected killer but were preparing a warrant for his arrest yesterday.

Less than 10 minutes after the tattoo killing, homicide detectives were hurrying to Willard Street, where Caldwell had collapsed, bleeding from a single stab wound to the chest.

Caldwell, 29, of Brooklyn Street near Fairmount Avenue in West Philadelphia, was pronounced dead 45 minutes later at Northeastern Hospital, police said.

He had gone to the white-shingled rowhouse to confront the mother of his young son about the boy's care, Coan said. The children, who ranged in age from 4 to 15 and who witnessed the incident, told police - and neighbors confirmed - that the pair had an abusive relationship.

The woman, whose name wasn't released, fled the scene after the stabbing. Detectives were preparing a warrant for her arrest yesterday.

The carnage continued at 3:19 a.m. on Lehigh Avenue near B in Kensington, when a robber gunned down his victim even though the victim had handed over his money, Coan said.

Kenyatta Smith, 36, of Cumberland Street near 24th in North Philadelphia, was shot once in the chest and died at Temple University Hospital just after 4 a.m., police said. His killer fled on foot. Police have no suspects.

Five other men were recovering in area hospitals from overnight gun violence:

_ At midnight, an 18-year-old man was shot once in the back at 40th and Market streets in University City. He remained in stable condition at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania yesterday.

_ At 12:56 a.m., a 19-year-old man was shot once in the right hip on Rittenhouse Street near Osceola. He remained in stable condition at Albert Einstein Medical Center yesterday.

_ Two minutes later, a 30-year-old was shot once in the neck on 23rd Street near Tasker in South Philadelphia. He remained in stable condition at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania.

_ At 1:34 a.m., a 55-year-old man was shot twice in the left calf on Stafford Street near Chew Avenue. He remained in stable condition at Einstein yesterday.

_ At 2:17 a.m., a 23-year-old man was shot once in the right foot on Louden Street near Broad in Logan. He remained in stable condition at Einstein yesterday. *