Cops: 14 shot over Halloween weekend

HALLOWEEN weekend was hellish in Philadelphia, with at least 14 people shot - seven on Halloween day alone, according to police.

After the bullets stopped flying, a woman, a man and a teenage boy were dead, three men remained in critical condition and eight others - including a 14-year-old boy shot while riding his bicycle - were in stable condition nursing gunshot wounds.

Motives for the shootings ranged from robbery to possible road rage, from arguments to stray bullets.

The first fatality was shortly before midnight Saturday, after police responded to reports of gunfire at Nicetown Park on 17th Street near St. Paul in Nicetown.

There, police discovered a 26-year-old woman lying facedown with multiple gunshot wounds. The woman, whose identity was not released pending family notification, was pronounced dead at the scene at 11:54 p.m.

Police said the investigation into the woman's slaying was "active and ongoing" but did not release a suspect's description or a motive in the case.

The second homicide of the weekend occurred at 4:40 p.m. yesterday, when a 16-year-old boy was shot once in the back on Sedgley Avenue near 22nd Street in North Philadelphia, police said.

The teen, whose identity was not released, was taken to Temple University Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 4:58 p.m.

Police said the boy and a 15-year-old friend were riding bicycles when - the younger boy told investigators - they got into an altercation with four men in a car.

The boys rode away when they saw the car had pulled over and 17 shots rang out.

Capt. Nicholas Brown told reporters at the scene that it could be a road rage incident, but 17 bullets were "a lot of shots to fire at two kids on a bike."

The boy's name was not immediately released.

Those critically wounded by gunfire included a 25-year-old man who was shot in the back when three men with whom he was fighting knocked him to the ground and opened fire at 2:24 a.m. Saturday on Germantown Avenue near Allegheny in North Philly. That victim continued to fight for his life last night at Temple University Hospital, police said.

In critical condition at Penn Presbyterian Medical Center was a 22-year-old man who told police he was shot once in the right hip from behind by someone he didn't see about 11:35 p.m. Saturday as he left a house on Walnut Street near 50th in Walnut Hill.

Gunfire also left a 68-year-old man in critical condition at Einstein Medical Center after he was shot in the abdomen at 9:22 p.m. Saturday while sitting in a chair on a front porch on Sprague Street near Wister in East Germantown, police said.

The man was semiconscious when officers arrived and was unable to provide information about the shooting, authorities said.

Among those left wounded by gunfire but expected to survive was a 14-year-old boy who was grazed on his left thigh by a stray bullet at 1:14 a.m. yesterday as he rode his bicycle on Luzerne Street near Front in North Philly, according to police.

The teen was treated for his injuries at St. Christopher's Hospital for Children and released.

Also wounded by gunfire but expected to recover was a 22-year-old man who claimed he was shot in a road-rage incident yesterday in Powelton.

According to police, the man was on 38th Street near Baring at 2:27 p.m. when two men in a silver car shot him in his right foot. He was taken to Penn Presbyterian Medical Center, where he was listed in stable condition.

Police said the motive for the shooting was road rage, but offered no further details.

About 7:28 last night, a 41-year-old man was shot three times in the head in Logan. He was found on 10th Street near Duncannon Avenue and was taken to Albert Einstein Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead at 7:58 p.m.

Police arrested a suspect in the shooting, but did not release an identity or a motive last night.

- Staff writer William Bender

contributed to this report.

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