3 weekend homicides bring city's tally to 277 for year

THE CITY HAD three homicides over the weekend, bringing this year's deadly tally to 277 - seven more than at this time last year.

Meanwhile, police also were busy with a violent home invasion and a drunken driver who hit several parked police cars.

The violence began about 12:10 a.m. Saturday, when a 36-year-old man, whose identity has not been released, was shot once in the head on 54th Street near Media in West Philadelphia. He was pronounced dead at the scene, police said.

Fewer than seven hours later, about 7 a.m. on Mifflin Street near 19th in South Philadelphia, a 40-year-old man was shot three times in the chest and pronounced dead at the scene. Police didn't release the man's name, or a motive or suspect.

At 3:36 a.m. Sunday, a man was stabbed once in the chest inside a house on Carver Street near Bingham in Crescentville, police said. The victim, whose identity was not released, was taken to Albert Einstein Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead at 4:21 a.m.

Police could not confirm reports that the victim's girlfriend had been taken into custody for his slaying.

In other weekend crime:

* A couple survived a violent home invasion in Kensington early Saturday, according to police.

About 4:45 a.m., two armed men broke into an Asian couple's house on Allegheny Avenue near G Street through a first-floor rear kitchen window, police said. The men hit the 35-year-old woman in the head with a gun and pistol-whipped her 41-year-old husband before shooting him twice in the back, police said.

All the while, the intruders were demanding money, police said. They made off with about $8,000 in cash.

The victims were taken to Temple University Hospital, where they were listed in stable condition.

Police gave no description of the thugs.

* Shortly before 5 a.m. Sunday, police were on the scene of a car accident at 56th and Chestnut streets in West Philadelphia when a drunken driver slammed into two parked police cruisers, causing heavy damage to one, police said.

One officer was taken to the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, where he was treated for back and neck pain and released.

The driver, whose name was not released, was uninjured.