Melee: 'Stupid girl stuff'

THEY KNOCKED on the door.

But the girls who paid Gary Pointer's 14-year-old granddaughter a visit Tuesday night bothered with no more manners after that.

They pushed their way inside Pointer's South Philadelphia rowhouse, brandishing golf clubs, broomsticks and Tasers. They attacked, not caring that there were children underfoot. The melee moved to the street and raged, by one neighbor's account, for 15 minutes.

Then the guns came out.

A neighbor who identified herself only as S. Weeks, 17, watched the war on Bucknell Street near Wharton from her window.

"It was just like a big free-for-all," she said. "But they came to kill."

Yesterday, irate neighbors and police took little comfort in the fact that no one died in the adolescent ambush, which left four people - including a 2-year-old girl, a 10-year-old boy and their 59-year-old grandmother - hospitalized.

Instead, residents seethed over teenagers who could turn a schoolgirl spat into vigilante violence that gravely wounded a toddler. Police promised to nab the attackers and urged citizens to resist retaliating.

"It's just reprehensible that a 2-year-old right now is in critical condition at CHOP" because of a teenage tiff, said Capt. Laurence Nodiff, commander of South Detectives.

Asiyah Owens, 2, remains at Children's Hospital after being shot in the hip and hand. Sayir Saunders, 10, and grandmother Andrea Pointer were treated at area hospitals and released with leg wounds. A man in his 20s was shot in the hand.

Nodiff and Gary Pointer said Tuesday's bloodshed stemmed from a fight that first erupted in July.

Nodiff declined to say what sparked that fight. Pointer characterized it only as "stupid girl stuff."

Pointer said he thought that the girls had "gotten over it," but Nodiff said tensions had simmered all summer long with "verbal conflicts back and forth" until Tuesday, when Pointer's granddaughter and her enemies had a fistfight about 3:30 p.m. at Broad Street and Snyder Avenue after leaving South Philadelphia High School.

Four hours later, a group of vengeful teenagers, with at least one mother in tow, visited Pointer's home.

Detectives haven't identified the teens, but did determine that two gunmen were there. They're not sure if the gunmen came with the teens, lived in the area or just happened upon the brawl and decided to join in.

One neighbor has security cameras affixed to his home, and investigators plan to review that footage.

Detectives also are examining what role social media played in stoking the violence.

Pointer said the teens, including his granddaughter whom he would not name, used Facebook and Twitter to trade taunts and discuss the feud online.

Pointer, 60, fumed that neither the girls nor their parents tried to resolve the rift verbally.

"All you had to do was come talk to me," he said of the attackers. "You don't have to do all this. Now I'm going to hold you accountable."

He added: "This generation, I just do not understand."

Since the shooting, officials have beefed up city and school police patrols in the area around the school, said Southern's principal, Otis Hackney. Nonetheless, some residents worried that more violence awaits the block.

"They need to crack down on these teenagers, because if they came [Tuesday],

they'll come again," said Weeks, the mother of a 2-year-old girl.

The violence erupted just two days after a triple shooting several blocks away in South Philadelphia in which a 6-year-old girl was injured.

"In some kind of way, this has got to stop," Pointer said.