Another bloody weekend: Six shot dead in Philadelphia

Police on Monday were investigating the shooting deaths of six men across Philadelphia over the weekend. No arrests had been made in any of the slayings as of Monday afternoon.

The victims ranged in age from 17 to 36, and included one man who had been speaking to a state House candidate about volunteering for the campaign just before he was killed.

The last of the deadly incidents happened about 7:30 p.m. Sunday, when 18-year-old Elijah Frazier was shot dead on the 8000 block of Temple Road in Cedarbrook.

Someone got out of a red SUV and fired shots into a crowd, killing Frazier, who lived in the neighborhood and was pronounced dead at Einstein Medical Center at 7:44 p.m. A 17-year-old boy also suffered a graze wound to his head and was hospitalized in stable condition.

That shooting may have been related to the slaying of 21-year-old Alex Cherry, who was shot to death four hours earlier, just after speaking with candidate Chris Rabb about volunteering for the Democrat's campaign.

"Both of the decedents are friends," Homicide Capt. James Clark said, referring to Cherry and Frazier. "They both live in the area."

Clark said investigators are probing an ongoing dispute between two groups of young men in the neighborhood, and what link that conflict might have to the weekend killings.

Rabb, an adjunct professor at Temple University's Fox School of Business, is running for the seat in the 200th District, which covers Chestnut Hill and Mount Airy.

Cherry died after he was shot in the head on the 1400 block of Vernon Road, just around the corner from the later shooting site. He was pronounced dead at the scene at 3:48 p.m. The gunmen fled north on the 8000 block of Fayette Street after shooting.

"We're asking for the public's help" in finding the shooter, Clark said.

Those killings followed an earlier Sunday shooting that claimed the life of a 17-year-old boy. The victim, identified Monday as Angel Castellanos of Feltonville, was shot in the chest on the 400 block of East Wyoming Avenue shortly before 3:15 a.m. He was pronounced dead at St. Christopher's Hospital at 4:20 a.m.

Police said the shooting happened after Castellanos and his friends were involved in an altercation near the nearby Emergency Cafe Lounge.

Two men were also slain in separate North Philadelphia shootings on Saturday.

Guy Ellison, 36, of North Philadelphia was found shot to death inside a green Pontiac Grand Prix on the 2300 block of West Huntingdon Street shortly after 4:30 p.m.

Earlier, Timothy McGorder, 29, of Logan, was found on the front steps of a home on the 1800 block of Sulis Street. He was pronounced dead at the scene at 7:31 a.m.

The weekend bloodshed began Friday night, when Anthony Molina, 25, was shot to death on the 8400 block of Lindbergh Boulevard in Southwest Philadelphia about 9:30 p.m.

His fiancee told police that she and Molina had just returned home to the Korman apartment complex when a man who had been sitting on the rental office's steps walked behind their vehicle and began firing at Molina when he got out of their vehicle to throw away trash.

No argument or conversation took place between Molina and the stranger, the fiancee told police. The shooter fled through a walkway after the killing.

The deaths brought to 80 the number of homicides this year in Philadelphia, compared to 67 during the same period in 2015.

@EmilyBabay