Four dead and teen critical after violent 30 hours in Philly

A Kensington woman was beaten to death by a man with a hammer, an East Germantown man was shot dead in an apartment, and a teenager in Southwest Philadelphia was accidentally shot in the eye when a friend put a gun in his face to wake him up to go to school.

Philadelphia police say that was just some of the violence that occurred in the city Sunday and Monday. In total, police said, four people were killed and the teen was in critical condition.

Lt. John Walker of Southwest Detectives said the teen, age 17, was shot through the eye and nose around 7 a.m. Monday when a 16-year-old friend put a gun in his face in an ill-conceived attempt to wake him up before they would walk together to John Bartram High School.

When the older teen woke up, startled, he tried to slap the gun out of the younger teen's hand, causing him to pull the trigger, Walker said. The 17-year-old was taken to Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and listed in critical condition.

The 16-year-old stayed at the house, on the 5300 block of Lindbergh Boulevard, and is likely to face charges of aggravated assault and related counts, Walker said. Police were still trying to figure out how he got a gun.

"Really sad case," said Walker. "Two families being destroyed by gun violence."

Earlier violence began around 2:31 a.m. Sunday, when police responded to the 3000 block of Ruth Street in Kensington and found Marisol Garcia-Infante, 41, dead next to her bed in a pool of blood.

Outside the house, police said, 43-year-old Juan Valerio — Garcia-Infante's boyfriend — confessed to striking her in the head with a hammer. He was taken to the Homicide Unit and later charged with murder.

Homicide Capt. James Clark said the shooting began as an argument.

"Escalated into physical, and he pulled out a hammer and beat her to death," Clark said.

Valerio was being held Monday without bail and was also charged with possessing an instrument of crime, according to court records.

About 12 hours later, on the 5700 block of McMahon Avenue in East Germantown, police found a man with gunshot wounds to the head and body. Authorities did not identify the victim, but they said he was pronounced dead at 2:57 p.m. Police announced no arrest or motive.

Police responded to another shooting around 5:16 p.m. on the 6900 block of Hegerman Street in Tacony. Officers found Tymir Outlaw, 19, shot several times. He was pronounced dead about 10 minutes later, police said. No arrests were announced.

The violence continued just after midnight Monday, when officers responding to the first block of East Penn Street in East Germantown found Boris Kimber Jr., 22, unresponsive and suffering from several gunshot wounds inside the front room of a house.

Kimber was pronounced dead at the scene. Police said a 28-year-old man told officers that he had pulled the trigger, but authorities did not identify the man or say whether he had been charged. But they did say a motive was an argument.

Police ask that anyone with information about any of the murders call the Homicide Unit at 215-686-3334. There is a $20,000 reward for information that leads to an arrest and conviction in murder cases.