City having a killer new year

NEW YEAR'S in Philadelphia is synonymous with Mummers - and maybe murder, after a bloody weekend that boosted last year's homicide rate to the highest it's been in four years.

A Saturday-afternoon shooting raised 2011's homicide count to 326, the most murders Philly has seen since 392 people were killed in the city in 2007.

And 2012 has a body count of five already.

New Year's Eve got off to a gory start just before 4:30 p.m. when police found Kevin Moore, 26, of Fern Street near Front, in Olney, shot multiple times in his 2009 silver Jaguar on Pike Street near 13th, in Hunting Park, police spokeswoman Officer Tanya Little said. Doctors declared Moore dead 15 minutes later at Temple University Hospital. The motive remains unknown.

Then on Saturday, 10 minutes before midnight, police responded to a "person with a gun" report on 2nd Street near Olney Avenue, in Olney, Little said. There, they discovered a man and woman dead in a parked, idling 2001 dark-green Hyundai Elantra. The driver, Arlette Aguero, 31, of Tampa Street near Wyoming Avenue, in Juniata Park, had been shot in the head, chest and finger. Her front-seat passenger, Alejandro Garro, 36, of Dungan Road near Cottman Avenue, in Burholme, had been shot in the neck and head. Paramedics declared both dead at the scene just after midnight, making them 2012's first homicide victims. The motive remains unknown.

Just 11 minutes after midnight, officers raced to Jessup Street near Ritner, in South Philly, where they found Joseph Testa, 77, with stab wounds to his chest. He died 40 minutes later at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. Investigators determined that an argument led to the stabbing, and they arrested Santo Mancuso, 52, of Ritner near 10th. Mancuso was a repeat offender with a history of violent offenses, court records show. He was convicted in 1993 of third-degree murder after he shot a prostitute in the head in 1990, according to the Inquirer.

More bloodshed quickly followed.

At 1:25 a.m., homicide detectives scrambled to the city's fourth slaying of 2012.

Gerard Market, 48, of Orchard Street near Torresdale Avenue, was shot several times in his neck and back near his home, Little said. Doctors at Temple University Hospital declared him dead at 1:44 a.m. Police listed the motive as an argument but made no arrests.

The year's fifth homicide happened just over an hour later.

Someone shot a 23-year-old man in the right shoulder at 8th and Callowhill streets at 2:42 a.m., Little said. He died at Hahnemann University Hospital at 3:35 a.m. His name has not been released, pending notification of kin, Little said.