Two teens shot dead on violent weekend

TWO FAMILIES on two Philadelphia streets shared the same kind of heartache yesterday afternoon as they mourned the unrelated shooting deaths of two teenagers.

On Ludlow Street in West Philadelphia, children played tag on concrete steps and showered each other with dead leaves while a group of teens and adults encircled Joyce Barham.

"I just told him he needs to get back to church," Barham said, clutching a picture of the grandson whom she had raised since birth. "What is this world coming to?"

About 1:30 p.m., police say, Barham's grandson, Michael Anthony Parker-Barham III, 17, was inside SEPTA's 52nd Street Station when he was hit by three bullets. More had been fired: Cops placed at least 14 bullet markers in the station's lobby and up the stairs leading to the Market-Frankford El.

"It was extremely brazen," homicide Capt. James Clark said of the afternoon shooting. "We also think there were a lot of people out there at the time who saw something and left."

Many businesses were closed at the usually bustling 52nd and Market intersection yesterday, but dozens of people still gathered after the shooting. Few - not even a street vendor whose books, incense and soap were mere feet from the station's stairs - had much to say.

One man waiting for a bus said he believed that the teenage victim was part of a large group who sold cigarettes at the station for 50 cents apiece.

Parker-Barham was pronounced dead at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. Police said that they knew of no motive for the shooting. His grandmother said that he attended University City High School.

A few hours earlier, on South Marston Street, in Grays Ferry, children splashed one another with water bottles on the sidewalks while teens and adults stood on front porches, talking over buzzing air conditioners about the early-morning shooting death of Saideen "Buggie" Lewis, 16.

Trudy "Miss Trudy" Pettiford was affixing colorful stickers to shiny balloons for a makeshift memorial to Lewis, who was hit in the head with a single bullet about 30 yards from his home.

"I watched that boy push his mother in her wheelchair when the wheelchair was taller than he was," said Pettiford, as gospel music blared from two large speakers in her window. "If he's ever done anything wrong, I didn't know about it."

Police wouldn't discuss a motive for Lewis' slaying, saying only that the teen was dropped off near his home about 1:30 a.m. and immediately was chased by a group of teens who opened fire on him.

"Homicide is actively working the case," police Sgt. Raymond Evers said. "We will know more tomorrow."

Lewis was pronounced dead shortly after the shooting at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.

"I heard pow, pow, pow," said Pettiford. "I thought it was the kids lighting those bottle rockets in the parking lot."

Pettiford said that she heard five shots. One had struck the basement window of a nearby rowhouse, just a few feet from what was now becoming a large memorial of flowers, balloons and more than a dozen stuffed animals.

"He was a good dude," said Lewis' "godsister," Naimah Satchell, 17, as she touched the balloons that Pettiford had placed there. "He was a big help to his mother."

Neighborhood residents said that Lewis was an only child and that his mother was disabled. She was not at home yesterday afternoon.

Several people in the neighborhood declined to comment, including one man who cried in front of the memorial for several minutes. One woman, who identified herself only as Patricia, said she hoped that someone who knows something speaks up.

"These people who did this are still out there - they could be around here," said Patricia, who was collecting signatures for a sympathy card. "They're either going to be caught or get killed."