2013 off to violent start in Philly with three homicides, fatal hit-run

This post has been updated.

UPDATE: Police have identified the victim of fatal hit-run on City Avenue as 50-year-old Patrick Coyle (see below).

The first few hours of 2013 had police in several neighborhoods busy as the year kicked off to a violent start in Philadelphia, with three people shot to death – one in the midst of a triple shooting – and a fourth killed in a hit-run crash.

In the first homicide of the year, cops say a 16-year-old boy was outside a house on Carpenter Street near 56th in West Philadelphia around 12:30 a.m. when he was shot in the chest and hand. He was taken to the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania and pronounced dead there at 12:50 a.m., police said. No arrests were reported in that homicide.

About a half-hour after the teen was shot, cops were called to Marvine Street near Cambria in North Philadelphia, where investigators say a 22-year-old man was stabbed six times – twice in the back, once in the chest, once in each shoulder and once in the face – inside a house. Police said he was taken to Temple University Hospital in critical condition. Investigators recovered the weapon believed to be used in the attack at the scene but did not make an arrest.

At 2:36 a.m., a 20-year-old man in Frankford became the year's second homicide victim in the city, police said. The man was shot once in the head inside a house on Pratt Street near Darrah, according to police, and pronounced dead there at 2:48 a.m. No arrests have been made in that slaying.

Minutes later, along the edge of the city in the River Park neighborhood, police say a 50-year-old man died on City Avenue near Presidential Boulevard when a car mowed him down and then fled the scene. Cops said the man, whom police identified Tuesday as Patrick Coyle, who lives on the same block, was pronounced dead at the scene by Narberth medics at 2:47 a.m.

The silver vehicle that hit him was last seen heading west on City Avenue and getting onto I-76 East, police said. They're still searching for that vehicle and driver, and it's unclear if alcohol played a factor in the hit and run.

About an hour after that, three people were wounded – one fatally – when they were shot inside a house on Venango Street near 17th in Tioga. A 23-year-old man who was shot in the chest was taken to Temple University Hospital and pronounced dead there at 4:04 a.m. The second victim, a 22-year-old man shot in the chest and foot was also taken to Temple, where he remained in critical condition later Tuesday, and the third victim, a 22-year-old man shot in the foot, was taken to Albert Einstein Medical Center in stable condition, cops said.

A 21-year-old woman was also hurt in that shooting when she jumped out of a second floor window to avoid gunfire and may have fractured bones in both her feet, police said. She was not shot, and she was hospitalized in stable condition.

In that triple shooting/homicide, cops made an arrest almost immediately and recovered the gun they believe was used.

If you have information in these or any other crimes, contact police at 215-686-TIPS (8477), text a tip to PPD TIP (773847) or submit a tip online. Tipsters can remain anonymous.