SUMMER SLAUGHTER

EVEN BY Philadelphia standards, this was bad: eight murders - including two separate triple shootings - in little more than 24 hours.

By the time cops were finished counting the spent shell casings, the city's homicide tally stood at 194, compared to 173 at this time last year, according to police.

Grief-stricken relatives filled the streets around the crime scenes, trying to make sense of the latest spate of murders.

Though the motives often varied, it was clear that out-of-control thugs are continuing to resolve their disputes by squeezing triggers.

This much rang true at 54th Street and Willows Avenue in West Philadelphia, where an unidentified man was shot to death at about 10 p.m. last night.

It was also horribly apparent earlier on a Kensington street where two people were killed and a third was wounded about 5:15 p.m. yesterday.

Raheem Haines and sisters Jennifer and Diana Patrick had gotten into an argument with two Hispanic men who wanted to deal drugs on the corner of Emerald Street near Somerset, said Homicide Lt. Philip Riehl.

The two men, who were driving a White Oldsmobile, opened fire, hitting Haines and the Patrick sisters.

Haines, 20, was pronounced dead at the scene.

Diana Patrick, 31, was pronounced dead at Temple University Hospital shortly thereafter, and her sister, Jennifer, 29, was listed in critical condition.

Residents provided descriptions of the shooters to police who immediately arrived at the crime scene, Riehl said.

Just minutes after the triple shooting, a Highway Patrol sergeant arrested two men at 9th Street near Cayuga who matched neighbors' descriptions of the shooters.

Riehl said he expected both men to be charged with murder last night.

"The residents provided information immediately to police and we were able to make a quick arrest," Riehl said. "This could happen in every case if we had this type of cooperation."

Riehl said it was unclear why the victims were arguing with the shooters about drug dealing.

Residents clustered behind crime-scene tape on opposite ends of Somerset Street last night.

A handful of young boys dribbled basketballs, unsure of how they should react to the bloodshed.

Others stared blankly as relatives of the victims pounded on the hoods of cars, sobbing loudly while praying for help from a higher power.

Darryl Davis, Haines' father, said his son was "a good kid" who had three small children of his own.

"I don't know how it happened," Davis said, while his son's lifeless body lay on the corner of Emerald Street, covered in a white sheet. "He held his baby son for the very last time today."

According to court records, Haines was arrested in 2006 on charges of attempted murder, aggravated assault and weapons violation.

The Kensington murders were preceded earlier in the day by a triple homicide in North Philadelphia, when a swarm of bullets exploded on Sixth Street near Oxford shortly before 2:30 a.m.

Police responding to the gunfire found the men dead in the street. Each had suffered multiple gunshot wounds.

The victims were Bruce Burman, 22, who lived with his aunt on the block; his cousin Bobby Lundy, 24, of Broad Street near Chelten Avenue; and their friend Sean White, 19, of Marshall Street near Master in Ludlow.

A police source said the murders appeared to be the result of an argument between the victims and a crew of local drug dealers.

Burman graduated from Kensington High School several years ago and worked at a McDonald's in Southwest Philly, his sister Kisha Bellamy said.

Lundy, whose nickname was "Bob-Bob," was also a Kensington High graduate who worked as a construction worker, his sister Janet Salley said.

"He was a clown, always cracking jokes," she said.

The victims' relatives railed against the violence that keeps the city's body count climbing.

"The killing got to stop," Lundy's mother said.

Bellamy added: "This black-on-black crime and youths killing youths - black people just don't know how to get along."

Lundy and White had past scrapes with the law.

Lundy was sentenced to five-to 11 years in prison for robbery, assault and related offenses stemming from a Dec. 7, 2000, incident, according to court records. He also had been sentenced to probation for a drug possession arrest six weeks earlier, according to the records.

White was facing a preliminary hearing in August for a drug charge and had a pending car-theft case, according to records.

The killings didn't end in North Philly.

Shortly before 11 p.m. Wednesday, police said, someone shot a man in the groin, chest and arm on Sickels Street near Haverford Avenue in West Philadelphia.

Investigators were still working to identify the victim last night.

Earlier that evening, Theophilius Mason, 46, was gunned down outside his home on Paxon Street near Race in West Philly.

Mason was pronounced dead at the Hospital at the University of Pennsylvania about 15 minutes after police found him with gunshot wounds to the chest, back and arm shortly after 5 p.m. Police had no motive or arrest. *