Weekend of shootings, invasions & alleged bare-hand neck-breaking

Episodes of violence in the city this weekend struck people at their homes, their jobs and even within their own families.

On Friday alone, a man killed his mother with his bare hands, two home invasions resulted in slayings and a feud between two barbers ended with fatal gunfire, according to police.

In separate incidents on Saturday, two babies, neither of whom was a full year into life, were taken to area hospitals with serious and suspicious injuries. One of the children did not survive, police said.

In that case, the father, whose name was not released, is expected to be charged with murder, Homicide Sgt. Bob Wilkins said.

He was allegedly watching his children, an 11-month-old boy and his 2-year-old girl, by himself Saturday morning at their home on Edgley Street near 22nd, in Strawberry Mansion, when, he said, he found the baby unconscious on the bedroom floor at about 6:45 a.m.

Medics rushed the boy to Temple University Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 7:01 a.m.

Investigators are awaiting autopsy results from the Medical Examiner's Office, but Wilkins said that the baby boy was bruised over his head and body.

The 2-year-old girl was not injured, he said.

In the other suspected case of child abuse, a 3-month-old girl who was taken to Temple by her 16-year-old mother and 20-year-old father at about 11 p.m. Saturday was found to have "really severe injuries," said Officer Tayna Little, police spokeswoman.

The child was transported to St. Christopher's Children Hospital from Temple when she began having multiple seizures, police said.

There, doctors discovered that she had been suffering from multiple contusions and bleeding in the liver, Little said.

The parents, who live with their daughter on Emerald Street near Cumberland, in Kensington, are being investigated by police, though no charges had been filed as of last night.

The infant remains in critical condition at St. Christopher's, police said.

Also on Saturday, Craig Artis, 45, was charged with the Friday morning death of his elderly mother at the home they shared on 46th Street near Woodland Avenue, in West Philadelphia, police said.

Artis broke the neck of his 83-year-old mother, Bessie Artis, with his bare hands, police said.

He was on scene when police responded to the house at about 8:47 a.m. for reports of screaming and found Bessie Artis on the kitchen floor. Medics pronounced her dead within minutes, Wilkins said.

The mother and son had been in an altercation before the killing, but Wilkins declined to release the nature of that fight.

An altercation also led to the death of barber Korvel Odd, 28, who was killed by a co-worker Friday night at the North Philadelphia barbershop where he worked, police said.

Despite the late hour, the Crazy Hands barbershop, on Lehigh Avenue near 24th Street, was open and serving customers at about 10:21 p.m. when Odd, of Horrocks Street near Knorr, in the city's Oxford Circle section, and an unidentified fellow barber at the store got into an argument, Wilkins said.

Odd's 27-year-old co-worker allegedly pulled out a gun and shot him multiple times in the head and shoulder before fleeing the scene on foot, police said.

He was caught a few blocks away and is expected to be charged with Odd's murder. Wilkins did not release the identity of the accused, pending official approval of the charges by the District Attorney's Office.

Odd was transported to Temple, where he was pronounced dead at 11:38 p.m.

Homicide detectives are also now on the case of a 30-year-old man who was shot once in the head at his Old City apartment on 3rd Street near Chestnut at about 9:40 p.m. Friday night.

The man, whose identity was not released, was alive at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital as of Sunday afternoon, Wilkins said, but it was unclear if he would make it another night.

Police were called to the scene by the man's roommate, who was questioned and released.

There were no signs of forced entry to the apartment and the place did not appear to have been ransacked, Wilkins said. No gun was found.

In a separate Friday night home invasion, one of two men who allegedly broke into a home on 15th Street near Indiana Avenue, in North Philadelphia, did not get away alive, police said.

Gannon Lowery, 23, of Horrocks Street near Longshore Avenue, in Oxford Circle, was shot once in the chest and once in the head by the unidentified homeowner, police said. He was pronounced dead at the scene at 11:41 p.m.

Lowery's alleged accomplice escaped the scene and remains on the lam. The homeowner is not expected to face any charges in relation to the incident, Little said.