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One dead, two injured in separate purse robberies

This morning, yet another family mourns yet another daughter because some greedy, heartless gunmen wanted her handbag. When did someone's purse become worth their life in this city, even after they've given it up?

This morning, yet another family mourns yet another daughter because some greedy, heartless gunmen wanted her handbag. When did someone's purse become worth their life in this city, even after they've given it up?

According to police, around 2:35 a.m. two women had just left a bar at 53rd and Market streets in West Philadelphia when two men in black hooded sweat jackets robbed them of their purses. The women gave up their bags but as a final act of gratuitous violence, one of the men fired several shots at the women as he ran away, according to police.

Those shots hit one of the victims, 28, twice in her chest. She was pronounced dead on scene. Her 34-year-old friend was shot once in the left arm and is listed in stable condition.

The names of the victims have not been released and police have not yet provided a detailed description of the suspects.

That shooting came just three days after a woman's boyfriend was critically injured during a purse robbery in North Philadelphia. According to police, the 23-year-old victim was walking to her car on Lehigh Avenue near 26th Street around 11:53 p.m. Thursday when a man snatched her purse. Her 24-year-old boyfriend tried to run the man down but a second offender came out of nowhere and shot him in the chest, police said.

The men got $300 from the victim's purse, which they later threw away, police said. The victim received critical injuries and a horrifying experience he will never fully recover from.

In this case, however, there has been an arrest. About 30 minutes after the robbery police stopped two men and charged them both with aggravated assault, robbery and related offenses for the incident. They are Rasheed Hall, 26, of Oakdale Street near 25th, and Clinton Brown, 20, of Sterner Street near 27th.

Both of these crimes come on the heels of the murder of Amber Long, who was shot and killed in front of her mother during a purse robbery on Jan. 19 in Northern Liberties. The Inquirer has a powerful profile of Amber Long today.