1 dead, 2 injured in brazen West Philly shooting

Thomas Fields was watching television when he heard the roar of gunfire outside his West Philadelphia rowhouse.

"Have you ever been in war? That's what it sounded like. It brung back memories," the 56-year-old Vietnam veteran said.

When the bedlam subsided and Fields finally ventured a peek outside, he saw the remnants of war, all right. Bullets and fired cartridge casings polka-dotted the pavement on 55th Street at Walnut, and two bloodied men sagged inside a sedan that had crashed into a parked car.

As police swarmed the scene, they found a third victim nearby at Larry's Auto Repair.

That man, who had just arrived for work, caught a stray bullet in the knee. He's expected to recover, but the victims in the car weren't as lucky. The 20-year-old driver, Thomas Frye, of Flanders Street near Lebanon Avenue in West Philadelphia, died at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. His 24-year-old passenger, whose identity police were withholding, remained there in critical condition with leg wounds yesterday.

Police hadn't determined a motive for the ambush yesterday.

"We are three blocks from the Police Department," Fields said, referring to the headquarters of the 18th District and Southwest Detectives, at 55th and Pine. "We shouldn't have that stuff here."

The shooting began about 10:30 a.m., when two armed men on foot approached a Pontiac Grand Prix from behind, Homicide Capt. James Clark said.

"I heard gunshots, and when I jumped up, I saw two guys shooting on each side of the car," said Larry Thomas, who owns the auto-repair shop and was at his desk doing paperwork when the bullets began flying. "They must have run off eight or 10 rounds each."

Crime-scene workers determined the gunmen had fired more than 20 shots from two semiautomatic weapons, Clark added.

The car then drifted in reverse into a parked car a few yards away on 55th, where the passenger staggered out and collapsed in the street, witnesses said.

Their attackers fled on foot.

"I knew exactly what it was - this is West Philly," said mechanic Ron Vails, who was working in Thomas' shop and hit the floor when he heard the gunfire. "I wasn't going to stick my head out to see; bullets don't have names for nobody, so you stay down."

But Vails' colleague, Tony Harris, wasn't fast enough. As Vails grabbed Harris to pull him to safety, the 56-year-old Harris, who works as a handyman in Thomas' shop, shouted: "I'm hit! I'm hit!"

Harris, hit in the knee, is expected to recover, Thomas and Vails said.

Police did not find any weapons and do not have detailed descriptions of the attackers, who wore dark hoodies and jeans.

Clark called the attack brazen, saying: "We're in broad daylight, with rowhomes all around."

Fields agreed: "They need to bring my fellow Marines out of Iraq and Afghanistan. We need them here. We got war right here." *

Staff writer Christine Olley contributed to this report.