Shootings flare; 3 dead
2 others critically wounded as year's toll hits 76
A spike in shootings that began Sunday and continued through yesterday has left three men dead and two men in extremely critical condition, pushing the city's homicide tally to 76 for the year.
Police found the body of Rasheed Morris, 25, riddled with bullets on Poplar Street near 40th in West Philadelphia shortly before 4:30 a.m. Sunday.
Morris, of Belmar Terrace near 58th Street, was pronounced dead at the scene.
At 10:10 a.m. Sunday, David Williamson, 47, was found dead from a gunshot wound to the head on Van Pelt Street near Norris in North Philadelphia, police said. Cops have made no arrests in either slaying.
Homicide Lt. Walter Bell said the bloodshed continued shortly after 7 p.m. yesterday, when an unidentified 27-year-old man was shot in the back on Ogontz Avenue near 80th Avenue in Cedarbrook.
The victim was pronounced dead at Albert Einstein Medical Center at 8:08 p.m. Investigators are looking for at least two gunmen, Bell said.
At 7 last night, a masked gunman walked into a North Philly cell-phone shop on Girard Avenue near 19th Street and shot Donte Wilder, 25, in the back of the head, police sources said.
When Wilder crumpled to the ground, the gunman leaned over his victim and shot him again. Wilder was taken to the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania in extremely critical condition and was not expected to survive the night.
According to court records, Wilder had been arrested in 2005 on assault and weapons charges. Sources said he was carrying a gun when he was shot last night.
Earlier in the day, a basketball dispute in South Philly ended in gunfire, forcing a grammar school to lock down.
Homicide Sgt. Anthony McFadden said an argument over a foul halted a pickup game at Dickinson Square Park, 4th and Morris streets.
One of the players who had been involved in the foul, an unidentified 18-year-old man, was shot in the back of the head at 2:20 p.m. as he sat in the backseat of an Oldsmobile on Morris Street near 3rd.
The teen was taken to Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in critical condition and was not expected to live through the evening, police said.
McFadden said a single gunman had fired at the victim from the basketball court and then ran off with several companions.
The shooting prompted the Abigail Vare Elementary School, nearby on Moyamensing Avenue near Morris Street, to go on lockdown.
A number of witnesses were talking with investigators yesterday, McFadden said. *