Two held for trial in shooting death of 3-year-old

Sherita Dickens said she could not hear what the two men in the street were talking about that night in August - or whether their words were heated.

They were just 10 feet away, she said, but the South Philadelphia block was crowded. Kids played. Two of Dickens' children sat next to her on the porch as she braided 3-year-old Tynirah Borum's hair.

The conversation between Brandon Ruffin, 22, and Michael Thomas, 24 - who police say belonged to feuding street crews - appeared to be over a few minutes later when a police patrol unit pulled onto Etting Street and Thomas turned away, waving, dismissively, at Ruffin.

Then Ruffin pulled a 9mm gun from his waistband and opened fire, wounding Thomas, Dickens, and another bystander - and killing Tynirah with a bullet through her chest.

There was no time to react, Dickens said.

"Before you could even say 'Gun!' or 'Get down!', he starts shooting - pow, pow, pow," Dickens testified Wednesday during a preliminary hearing for Ruffin and his alleged accomplice, Douglas Woods, both held for trial on murder charges. Police said Woods drove Ruffin to Etting Street on the handlebars of his bicycle.

"My first instinct was to shield the kids," Dickens, 28, said, explaining that she wrapped an arm around Tynirah.

Dickens then asked Municipal Court Judge Teresa Carr Deni for tissues.

Wiping away her tears, she recalled the chaotic moments of a killing that for many this summer defined the disregard with which so many young men in Philadelphia fire guns.

"Everything went blank," Dickens said. "I heard everyone else crying, but I didn't feel any movement in the baby."

One of the bullets had pierced Tynirah's heart, lodging in a lung. Another passed through the girl's cheek, ending up in Dickens' biceps.

Members of a police gang task force, who had turned onto the block after spotting the rival crew members, scooped up Tynirah and rushed her to Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, where she died shortly afterward.

Thomas, who was shot in the back of the head, remains in a rehab facility, said Assistant District Attorney Gwenn Cujdik, who is prosecuting the case along with First Assistant District Attorney Edward McCann. Partly paralyzed from his wound, Thomas struggles to walk, Cujdik said. A 21-year-old man was also shot through his leg.

Woods and Ruffin, who had recently been paroled on a gun charge, belonged to a street crew near 23d and Wharton Streets, said Cujdik. Thomas was associated with a gang near 27th and Tasker, just a block from Etting. The two groups had been shooting back and forth, Cujdik said.

Surveillance footage from a nearby corner store captured images of two men on a bicycle - who prosecutors said were Woods and Ruffin - pedaling onto Etting Street. Woods, prosecutors said, circles on the bike, near Tasker, until Ruffin comes running back.

Woods, who was about 100 feet away when Ruffin opened fire, was a culpable accomplice, McCann said, since "not only did he take Ruffin to the scene, he waited for him," and he "shared the common purpose" of wanting to kill Thomas.

Police caught Woods a few blocks way. Ruffin was arrested days later.

Police Office Brian Younger testified that he and his partner turned onto Etting after briefly questioning Woods and spotting Ruffin - gang members outside their turf, they knew.

"We got about 10 houses away," the officer said. "And that's when we heard the shots."