Police identify three men slain in separate shootings

Three men killed in separate shootings around the city this week were identified by police on Thursday.

Slain in an apparent ambush in the parking lot of a Popeye's restaurant on Broad Street near Hunting Park Avenue in Hunting Park on Tuesday afternoon was 42-year-old Kenneth Woods, who lived on 18th Street near Wagner Avenue in Logan. Police have said they believe Woods' homicide spurred another double shooting in East Germantown early yesterday morning that left a 25-year-old pregnant woman dead.

Killed yesterday in a midday shootout that put a Fairhill charter school on lockdown was 30-year-old Rafael Cruz, police said. Cruz, who lived on Orleans Street near Amber in Kensington, was shot in the back at American and Cambria streets, just outside the Pan American Academy Charter School, and later died at Temple University Hospital. Investigators have said they believe Cruz and a second man, who was also wounded by gunfire but did not die, had a shootout on the block. The second man has not been identified.

About four hours after that fatal shooting, police said, 19-year-old Saafir Richards died in a hail of nearly 30 bullets on Watkins Street near 6th in South Philadelphia's Southwark section. Richards' shooting happened in the bustling neighborhood about 5 p.m., and police said at the scene that witnesses reported seeing two gunmen fire several shots at Richards. Richards was wounded once in the back of the neck and died at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. Police found 29 spent shell casings littering the block.

Investigators yesterday said that they believe Richards was shot in retaliation for another shooting in the same neighborhood earlier this month. Richards lived on Titan Street near 5th, about five blocks from where he was killed, police said.

Court records indicate that all three homicide victims had criminal records.