Police: Piazza tape shows "calculated" shootings.

Surveillance footage taken from inside the posh Piazza at Schmidts in Northern Liberties captured what a police captain called the "organized, calculated" shootings of Saturday's two homicide victims, 34-year-old Rian Thal and Timothy Gilmore, 40.

Thal and Gilmore were ambushed and gunned down outside Thal's apartment by three men who lay in wait and cornered them in the hallway, police said yesterday. A fourth man acted as a lookout. The stakeout and shooting took about 30 minutes.

Investigators say they believe Thal and Gilmore were targeted because of their involvement with drugs. Both were known to law enforcement authorities, and police say they suspect Gilmore, of Ohio, was Thal's accomplice in drug deals.

A law enforcement source familiar with the drug underworld called Thal a "facilitator," who would store and hold drugs for dealers. Police say they found four kilograms of cocaine in Thal's apartment, along with more than $100,000 in cash.

Philadelphia Police Capt. James Clark would not specify how Thal was involved with illegal drugs but said, "We know she was in the game."

Clark said the gunmen likely intended to get into Thal's apartment, where they may have known she had drugs and money. But what may have begun as a robbery "probably went wrong really quickly," Clark said, and after words were exchanged, the shooters opened fire. Clark said the gunmen probably knew when Thal and Gilmore would return to the apartment.

Thal, who threw parties at some of the city's trendiest nightclubs, was known to hang out with local rappers, celebrities, and professional athletes. Her events drew big crowds, and her MySpace profile depicts a smiling Thal posing with clubgoers and members of the local hip-hop scene. Her apartment was on the top floor of a trendy, $100 million complex in one of the city's hottest neighborhoods.

Friends and colleagues described Thal as hardworking, professional, and upbeat. She called herself "RiGirl" and was often the life of the parties she diligently organized.

Friends said they never picked up hints that Thal may have had another, more dangerous job.

"This is shocking to me, unbelievable," said Lisa Natson, DJ "Golden Girl" on Power 99 FM, who worked at parties hosted by Thal at the Plush nightclub at Eighth and Callowhill Streets. "You just never know what people are into."

In Plymouth Meeting, where Thal has family, a woman who answered the phone would not comment.

Police are still investigating Thal's connection to Gilmore.

Gilmore was originally from Detroit, where he worked as a firefighter until he was injured and left on disability, said his brother, Ernest Gilmore. He then moved to Ohio, where he married, had a young daughter, and worked as a dump-truck driver. After that, he was divorced and drove an 18-wheeler, Ernest Gilmore said.

Ernest Gilmore said he had never heard of Thal and had no idea why his brother would have been in Philadelphia.

"This is a very hard time," he said. "It's really a shock. The police are telling me it's drugs, but I just don't understand."

Ernest Gilmore said his brother came to Philadelphia with a roommate, but Clark would not say whether Gilmore traveled here alone.

Saturday's attack was meticulously planned, Clark said, and seemingly all the elements of that plan were documented on security footage released yesterday. (To see the surveillance video, visit Philly.com.)

A man first entered the Piazza around 5 p.m., cameras show. He followed a resident into the lobby, but the resident seemed not to notice him. That man, who was talking on a cell phone, later opened the door for the two other gunmen after waiting in the lobby for a few moments. A fourth man also entered the building, Clark said.

Three men went up to the seventh floor while another took the stairs to the sixth. The three on the seventh floor were armed. At times the men appeared to communicate via the stairwell.

Two men positioned themselves in the stairwell next to the elevators on the seventh floor, where Thal and Gilmore would get off. A third stationed himself in the stairwell at the opposite end of the hallway, near Thal's apartment.

The fourth man served as lookout from the sixth floor, Clark said, watching for Thal and Gilmore to enter the building. Moments before Thal and Gilmore returned, that man took the elevator to the seventh floor to make sure the other men were in position, Clark said.

Thal and Gilmore returned to the building around 5:30. Cameras recorded them as they stepped out of the elevators, then started towards Thal's apartment. Before they began walking down the hall, however, they stopped, hesitated and turned around. Thal walked to a window near the elevator and looked out.

"They're looking behind them," Clark said. "It looks like they almost think something might be up."

When Thal and Gilmore turned and walked down the hall, cameras captured the two men leaving the stairwell and following them. At the other end of the hallway, the other man emerged, trapping Thal and Gilmore.

Thal was shot in the back of the neck and in the head. She collapsed in front of her door. Gilmore was shot several times and ran down the hall before he fell to the ground in front of the elevators.

The men left the building quickly, one of them running. Two men can be seen walking out more nonchalantly, one of them almost bumping into a man moving a piece of furniture into the lobby, then moving aside to let him pass.

The security cameras that captured the attack were not concealed, Clark said, but the men did not seem overly concerned about being seen.

"They were extremely brazen, extremely bold," he said.

Before moving to the Piazza, Thal lived in an apartment on 11th Street, on Germantown Pike in Plymouth Meeting, and in a apartment on Poplar Street.

For several years she was a popular bartender at Bluezette, the now-shuttered Old City restaurant owned by soul-food impresario Delilah Winder. Thal was among the first people hired at Bluezette when it opened in 2000, said Winder, who owns several Delilah's restaurants in Philadelphia.

"She always had a very big, outgoing personality," Winder said. "Rian was popular with people."

As Thal moved up the ladder of Philadelphia's nightlife, she accumulated friends quickly. Yesterday, many of those friends had posted messages of sadness on her MySpace page.

That sense of loss was also apparent at Thal's apartment building, which is in the midst of a giant courtyard with restaurants, shops, and an LCD screen and stage.

Mourners set up a small memorial in an alcove next to Thal's building, placing several dozen red, white, and pink flowers in front of a sign with pictures of a smiling Thal. Near it were written the words: a shining star in the Philadelphia community.

Fernando Benitez, who owns the Liberty Deli across the street from Thal's former apartment at Third and Poplar Streets, said Thal came in several times a week, usually to order the chef's salad with extra eggs. Benitez, who lives above the deli, said Thal was a quiet neighbor.

"She was a good kid," he said. "It didn't seem to me or anyone here that she would be into anything like that."

Candace Karch, who owns the Bambi art gallery and boutique in the Piazza complex, said Thal was a "total workaholic."

Karch also tends bar at the Fishtown bar Johnny Brenda's. Thal came in a few times a month for the last six years, Karch said, often late at night, to get some food before going out.

"She came in alone a lot," Karch said. "She was always good to me."

Police are asking the public to look at the surveillance footage to see if they recognize any of the gunmen. Anyone with information is asked to call the police at 215-686-3334 or -3335.