Playground shooting, discovery of body add to murder toll

Police have identified last evening's playground murder victim but not the badly decomposed body found Monday.

One man was killed and three other males were wounded about 6 p.m. yesterday at a crowded city playground in the 6000 block of A Street, police said.

Two cars drove across the grass to the basketball courts, where arguing and fighting ensued, followed by gunfire, police said.

According to witnesses, 60 to 70 people were at the playground, and most took off running.

Freeman Lambeck, 27, of 5300 West Columbia, was pronounced dead at 6:35 p.m. at Einstein Hospital, according to Officer Beth DiDonato this morning.

Also taken to Einstein were three males, ages 17, 20 and 21, who were in serious or critical condition with gunshots wounds.

"It might have been an argument over a girl. We're not sure," said Commissioner Sylvester Johnson, who was at the scene.

Lamenting the city's violence problem, he faulted weak gun laws, poverty, unemployment and scared witnesses.

"If these legislators don't realize that we have a handgun problem here in the City of Philadelphia, then there's something wrong," Johnson said.

A badly decomposed body found Monday also turned out to be a case of murder. The man's body was found by youngsters in a wooded area on Newtown Avenue near Godfrey Avenue in Northeast Philadelphia.

He'd been shot twice in the head, the medical examiner determined, DiDonato said.

Because a March case was just reclassified as self-defense, the year's homicide toll now stands at 199, not 200 as has been reported, DiDonato explained.

That case involved the death of Spencer Edwards, 17, who died of a stab wound to the chest on March 6. Police determined that the suspect, 16, was defending himself from a group of youths who were trying to rob him. The incident took place shortly before 10 p.m. in the unit block of East Johnson Street.

Of 201 cases initially classified as homicides, two were later ruled as justifiable, she said, so they don't count toward the total.