Chester plagued by spike in homicides

Chester police are investigating the city's sixth homicide in a week, a West End shooting that happened within blocks of most of the killings.

There have been 16 homicides so far this year in the city of about 37,000, putting Chester on track for one of its deadliest years yet. There also has been a spate of other shootings.

"This week has been horrendous," said Chester Police Capt. Joseph Massi, who heads the detective division.

Last year, 28 people were killed in Chester, and the city's deadliest year was 1993, when 29 people were slain, Massi said. The city's homicide rate per capita consistently ranks as one of the highest in the state, at times double Philadelphia's rate.

The latest homicide happened about 1 a.m. Tuesday in the 500 block of Lloyd Street, where police found an African American man age 20 to 30 lying dead on the sidewalk, Massi said. He had been shot in the chest.

Another man, Charles Edward Smith, 24, was found shot in the arm and lying on the street at 1000 West Fifth St., police said. He was treated at Crozer-Chester Medical Center and released yesterday.

This latest streak of violence has continued almost unabated since Aug. 2. Police have found few similarities among the cases besides location, Massi said.

Beefed-up forces seem to have done little to help. The state police have helped Chester's 101-member police force patrol the city for the last 12 years, offering support in the most dangerous sections of the city during peak times for crime, Massi said.

On Saturday night, Chester's typical patrol crew of six officers was bolstered by four extra Chester officers and four state troopers. Still, two Chester residents were killed in an alley.

The city's West End, where most of the homicides have taken place, is a residential area where police have had trouble on and off for several years, Massi said.

Each year, at least half of Chester's killings go unsolved, as witnesses are often afraid to come forward, he said.

"We just don't have cooperation," he said.

This latest outbreak started Aug. 2, when William Gigetts, 30, was shot at 4:49 a.m. on the 900 block of James Street, several blocks from the the most recent killing. Gigetts remains on life support, Massi said.

Last Tuesday, Karim Anderson, 29, was shot and killed on Patterson Street, nearer to the center of the city.

On Thursday, Michael Palmer, 50, was found shot dead on the sidewalk at Whittington Place and Union Street in the William Penn Housing Development.

On Saturday night, police found the bodies of Natalie McCready, 32, and Richard Salters, 39, both of Chester, near West Sixth and Lincoln Streets. Both had been shot to death.

On Sunday night on West Sixth near Tilghman, 34-year-old Dana Pearson was found shot in both of his legs. He was listed in fair condition yesterday.

At 12:38 a.m. Monday, blocks away at Lloyd and Seventh Streets, police found Derrick Cannon, 34, of Chester, shot three times in his legs.

While assisting him, officers were called to 11th and Butler Streets, where a man had rammed his car into several parked cars before coming to a stop. It wasn't until he was extricated from his car and taken to a hospital that police found he had been shot in the chest, Massi said. Aalim Reed, 22, of Chester, was pronounced dead at 1:42 a.m.

Police believe both men were shot by a man wearing a ski mask who had run up to Reed's car when Reed had stopped to talk to Cannon.

Chester's homicide rate per capita was the highest in the state in 2006 for municipalities with populations between 25,000 and 49,999 that reported information to the U.S. Department of Justice. Chester also reported the highest rate of violent crime for cities its size in the state.