Braheem Burke represents another facet of the agency's work - services to troubled teens. MultiEthnic's report appears to suggest that DHS had been providing services to the Burke family since November 2004.

According to the arrest warrant, Burke and an accomplice allegedly shot and killed two men, and injured a third, after an altercation on June 7. The dead were Niall Saracini, 18, and Charles Carter, 19.

The warrant says Burke and his cousin, Yusef Washington, 20, let loose with a noontime volley of shots in North Philadelphia that struck Carter in the head and Saracini in the neck and body, fatally injuring both. A third man was shot in the leg and survived.

Burke is being held without bail, awaiting trial. He has not entered a plea. Washington remains at large. At the time of the double slaying, Washington was a fugitive on a previous arrest on charges of dealing crack cocaine near where the shootings took place.

Though Burke is only 17, he has long been involved with the police. As a juvenile, he was twice arrested on charges of assault and twice for robbery, said a source familiar with his record. The cases had a mixed outcome, and Burke was never found formally delinquent.

In January, court records show, police arrested him on a charge of aggravated assault; police said he shot a 16-year-old girl in the leg in his mother's house when he was playing with a handgun. The charges were dropped after the girl failed to show up for a hearing.

MultiEthnic was providing what are called SCOH services, which stands for "services to children in their own home."

Records obtained by The Inquirer state that the teenager was monitored to prevent abuse, neglect and truancy.

It is not known why DHS first became involved with Burke, but law enforcement officials said it may have stemmed from his juvenile court history.

In an interview Friday, Joan Burke, 44, Braheem's mother, said that a social worker from MultiEthnic regularly visited her home in South Philadelphia in June and July, but never spoke with her son, because he was no longer living there.

She said he was staying with her mother in North Philadelphia, though police said they never found him at that address.

Joan Burke said the social worker would linger only briefly - sometimes just five to 10 minutes - and would leave after she told him her son was doing OK and was living elsewhere. Before the worker left, she said, she would ask Burke to sign a form affirming the visit.

Burke said she didn't know her son was being sought on a murder warrant. She said she did not think the MultiEthnic social workers knew that either.

It's unclear why a murder charge for a 17-year-old would not have come to the attention of DHS or MultiEthnic.

According to the MultiEthnic report, the company told the city it had "contacted Job Corp for Braheeim."

This was news to his mother.

"I never heard nothing about Job Corps," she said."I would have been all for that. If that happened, he wouldn't be in the predicament he's in now."

Burke complained that the agency's checks seemed cursory.

"There was no plan. . . . No goals or nothing," she said.