Bloody weekend the latest in a violent first quarter of year

Four-year-old Tahirah Phillips was watching TV with her brothers and sisters in their Kensington rowhouse Saturday afternoon when, authorities say, her father accidentally shot her in the head. Before fleeing, Maurice "Stephon" Phillips allegedly smeared blood on Tahirah's 5-year-old sister to try to make it look as if she had pulled the trigger.

About 12 hours later - and less than a mile away - 46-year-old James Elijah Dickson barricaded himself inside a house after firing three shotgun blasts into the heads of three people. After he surrendered, police found each victim dead on the floor of the living room and kitchen.

And Sunday night, under the El in West Philadelphia, a young patrol officer was shot in a leg while trying to break up a suspected carjacking. The alleged shooter was arrested Monday, and the officer, James McCullough, was in stable condition, police said.

Philadelphia was overflowing with bloodshed over the weekend - four people shot dead and 12 injured by gunfire, according to police. And as officials Monday lamented each gruesome crime, statistics showed that the outbursts were just the latest in a violent first quarter of 2016.

As of Monday, the city had recorded 78 homicides since Jan. 1, up 17 percent from the same point last year and the highest pace since 2012, according to police figures.

The number of shooting victims, meanwhile, was up 44 percent - from 228 at this point last year to 329 as of Sunday night. Aggravated assaults involving a gun were up 9 percent over last year, police figures showed.

In an interview Monday, Commissioner Richard Ross said police are concerned about the level of gun violence to open the year, particularly because many of the incidents are concentrated in specific neighborhoods, including Kensington and North Philadelphia.

But he said the city's overall violent crime rate - which includes rapes, robberies, and assaults - is down about 4 percent compared with last year.

And three months can be a small sample size from which to draw conclusions, Ross said. The uptick in gun crimes, for example, comes even as police have made 34 percent more arrests for firearms violations compared with last year, according to Ross.

"This stuff ebbs and flows, unfortunately," he said.

Chad Dion Lassiter, president of Black Men at Penn School of Social Work Inc., an activist group based at the University of Pennsylvania, said Philadelphia should start looking at its crime rate differently.

"We have to start framing violence as a public health crisis," he said. "We need to deal with the unacknowledged and undiagnosed trauma that exists in our communities."

The trauma over the weekend seemed to flow uninterrupted.

The first killing was Tahirah's, at 2:25 p.m. Saturday in the 200 block of East Mayfield Street.

Homicide Capt. James Clark said she was one of seven children watching television and playing in a bedroom when Phillips, 30, accidentally fired a gun he was waving around. The bullet struck Tahirah in the head and killed her instantly, Clark said.

"It's a stupid, idiotic act," he said. "It was completely reckless."

Phillips then allegedly punched his 5-year-old daughter and wiped Tahirah's blood onto her shirt to make it seem as if the older daughter had committed the crime and he had punished her for it, Clark said. After calling his fiancee, Phillips changed his clothes and fled, Clark said.

He didn't resurface until Saturday night, when he turned himself in at the 24th District and confessed to the crime after initially trying to implicate the 5-year-old, Clark said.

Phillips was charged with third-degree murder and related offenses.

A few hours after Phillips' confession, around 3:53 a.m., three people were slain inside a rowhouse in the 600 block of East Westmoreland Street, police said.

Dickson, charged in the crime, allegedly shot four people with a shotgun, then barricaded himself inside the home. He called 911 during the standoff and was persuaded to surrender around 5 a.m., police said.

Dickson was charged Monday with three counts of murder, one count of attempted murder, and related offenses.

Although police over the weekend had said Dickson shot his brother, officials on Monday could not confirm that because only one of his alleged victims had been identified: 46-year-old Edwin Laboy.

The fourth victim was found by police about a block away, authorities said. He was taken to Temple University Hospital, where he was in critical condition Monday with a gunshot wound to his arm, officials said.

Meanwhile, Scott Griffin, 23, was arrested without incident Monday afternoon in West Philadelphia after narcotics officers acting on a tip took him into custody in the 1200 block of Alden Street. He had a gun that police believe was used to shoot McCullough, but ballistics testing is required to confirm that suspicion, Clark said.

Ross said McCullough is "exhausted" but "is going to be OK."

As the sun began to set Monday on the 200 block of East Mayfield Street, a small group held a prayer vigil in front of the white rowhouse where Phillips allegedly killed his daughter.

Mel Wells, an antiviolence advocate and ex-offender who presided over the vigil, called out to neighbors to join the service.

"We came out here to stand up for the family, especially the little girl whose life was lost," he said. "Neighbors, come on out of your house and stand with us, because you're part of the family. We can't keep sitting by."

Neighbors slowly made their way into the small street near Hope Park, or poked their heads out of screenless second-story windows.

Phyllis Myers, the dead girl's grandmother, took the microphone while hugging her husband. "Just pray for my family and my granddaughter," she said before she was overcome with emotion.

Then her husband, Donald, took the microphone. "Thanks for coming out today for my grandbaby," he said, his voice quivering, tears rolling down his cheek.

"It really hurts. For real. I mean, this is crazy. . . . It was a 4-year-old girl, never went to school. I mean, she never saw her brother grow up. I mean, this is life. That's a shame. And it should stop, for real. It should actually stop. . . . We've got to stop killing each other."

Wells spoke of gun control and added, "We've become immune to a nightmare.

"Yes, black lives matter ... but until they matter to us, they cannot matter to nobody else."

cpalmer@phillynews.com

215-854-2817@cs_palmer