Five dead, three injured in separate Phila. shootings

Philadelphia police continued to seek suspects yesterday in four weekend shootings that claimed the lives of five people and left three others in critical condition.

Officers arrived at a home in the 2600 block of West Oakdale Street in North Philadelphia about 4:10 p.m. yesterday to find two men shot, one in the vestibule and the other outside. Both victims were pronounced dead at Temple University Medical Center. Police did not identify the victims last night and had no other information.

Two victims of a fatal shooting in Grays Ferry Saturday were probably in the wrong place at the wrong time, according to police.

About 5:30 p.m. Saturday, Charles West, 61, and Ronald Simmons, 56, were chatting on a corner in the 1300 block of South Harmony Street near Wharton Street in Grays Ferry when shots were fired, police said. West was hit in the right side, and Simmons was shot in the head.

"We believe maybe someone else was the intended [target]," said Lt. Philip Riehl, who added that at least nine shots were fired.

Both men were taken to the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, where they were pronounced dead within eight minutes of each other - West at 6:02 p.m. and Simmons at 6:10.

Riehl said the two victims were friends known to talk on the corner who had family and neighborhood ties and little trouble with the law.

"They both had some brushes with the law, but it was back in the early '70s," Riehl said.

Witnesses have come forward, he said, but no suspects have been identified, and police did not have a weapon or motive.

In the second shooting, a 30-year-old man who was shot in the back about 6:30 p.m. Saturday remained in critical condition yesterday at Temple University Hospital. That shooting took place on the 800 block of East Thayer Street in Kensington.

In the third shooting, three young men were shot, one fatally, about 8:45 p.m. on the 7200 block of Ogontz Avenue in West Oak Lane.

Terrell Holliday, 19, and an 18-year-old man were getting out of a car when they were approached by three males and shots were fired, police said.

Holliday was shot in the head and was pronounced dead at 11:08 p.m. at the Albert Einstein Medical Center.

The 18-year-old had been shot in the upper torso and may wind up paralyzed, Riehl said.

A 19-year-old man was with the three who approached Holliday, and his companion was hit in the back and was in critical condition at the medical center yesterday, police said.

Police still had no suspects, motive or weapons in that shooting.