Bystander

Police identified a bystander yesterday who was shot to death Friday afternoon while washing the windows of the intended victim's car in a West Philadelphia repair shop. Three unrelated shootings were also reported overnight. The dead bystander, Gary Bigelow, 40, of North Philadelphia, was working at the garage when a multicolored van pulled up around 3 p.m., police said. One or more shooters fired in the direction of Bigelow and a mechanic making repairs under the car at the shop, in the 900 block of South 53d Street.

A bullet fired by a gunman during a chase in South Philadelphia yesterday struck a bystander in the head while he was playing with a small boy on a front step, police said. Marshall Woodward, 25, of South Philadelphia, was in stable condition at Graduate Hospital last night. The 16-month-old boy with him was not hurt, police said. A second man, the target of the gunman, was listed in stable but guarded condition at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. Police identified him as Charles Johnson, 24, of South Philadelphia.

Another innocent bystander was shot yesterday as a gunman missed his target on a crowded West Philadelphia street and hit the intended victim's friend in the head, police said. The gunman's bad aim brings to five the number of bystanders blasted over the past nine days by errant gunfire. Four were children. The victim, Gregory Tiggs, 35, of Ruby Street near Race, had nothing to do with the tiff between his pal, who wasn't identified by police, and the gunman, who fled after the 9:40 a.m. shooting on 51st Street near Spruce.

Two men, including a 74-year-old bystander, were wounded Sunday night in a shooting in Southwest Philadelphia, police said. The 21-year-old man believed to be the intended target of the attack was reported in critical condition at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania with bullet wounds to the chest, abdomen and left leg, police said. The 74-year-old victim was helping his wife get out of their car about 9:50 p.m. when gunfire erupted on the 5600 block of Malcolm Street in Kingsessing, police said.

When gunmen indiscriminately spray bullets around the city these days, it's often the innocent who catch the lead. That's what happened to Margarito Rivera, 59, who was in the wrong place at the wrong time June 14 when two bullets fired at another man tore into his body, killing him. "He was an innocent bystander, a man who was in the wrong place at the wrong time," said Assistant District Attorney Thomas Margiotti. "This was a real tragedy. " Yesterday, after a preliminary hearing before Municipal Judge Francis P. Cosgrove, Luis Nazario, 19, of Palethorp Street near Somerset, was held without bail for trial on murder and weapons charges.

City Councilman Kenyatta Johnson and State Sen. Anthony Williams will announce a $5,000 reward Monday in the shooting death of Clarice Douglas, 45, a bystander caught in cross fire Friday outside her Grays Ferry home. Police said Douglas was killed in a shootout between two men running on Corlies Street near Dickinson Street about 2:30 p.m. Friday. - Julie Shaw

A double shooting Friday afternoon in Grays Ferry left neighbors outraged over the death of an innocent bystander and wondering how to keep themselves and their children out of harm's way. "This . . . is really getting out of hand on these streets. What can we do?" James Parker asked as he looked across Corlies Street to the spot where a 45-year-old woman, whom neighbors identified as Clarice Douglas, was gunned down. Neighbors said she was a bighearted woman who was always seen riding bikes or playing football with her children, or sipping coffee with her mother on the porch where her life came to an unexpected end. A shootout between two men running along Corlies Street near Dickinson around 2:30 p.m. left the woman dead and one of the shooters, an unidentified 23-year-old man, in critical but stable condition Friday night at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania.

A bystander was shot and critically wounded by a police officer early today as he attempted to arrest a man in the rape of a North Philadelphia woman a short time before, police said. Police said Officer Robert Muench of the 23rd District, 17th Street and Montgomery Avenue, was transporting the woman in his patrol car to the Thomas Jefferson University Hospital Rape Clinic when she spotted her attacker on the southwest corner of Broad Street near Vine at 4:06 a.m. Muench continued driving south on Broad to Race Street, made a U-turn and returned to Vine, police said.

A second man sought in an East Germantown shooting that wounded a woman inside her home has surrendered to police, authorities said today. Kairi Harris, 33, of the 400 block of East Rittenhouse Street, faces charges of attempted murder, aggravated assault and related offenses, police said. His cousin, Ahmae Harris, 21, was arrested on Tuesday and charged with the same offenses in the Dec. 23 shooting on the 5800 block of Morton Street. During the shooting, a bullet went through a window and struck a 53-year-old woman in the face, seriously wounding her. Police said she was an innocent bystander.

An 86-year-old woman was shot and injured while standing on her porch in Southwest Philadelphia last night. Police said that the woman was shot in the thigh about 9:15 p.m. by a man who was firing shots as he pursued another man down 51st Street near Springfield Avenue. "She was just an innocent bystander," Capt. Mike Ryan said at the scene. "She was just minding her own business. " An officer who arrived on the scene clamped down on the woman's wound to help stem the flow of blood.

Two men, including a 74-year-old bystander, were wounded Sunday night in a shooting in Southwest Philadelphia, police said. The 21-year-old man believed to be the intended target of the attack was reported in critical condition at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania with bullet wounds to the chest, abdomen and left leg, police said. The 74-year-old victim was helping his wife get out of their car about 9:50 p.m. when gunfire erupted on the 5600 block of Malcolm Street in Kingsessing, police said.

City Councilman Kenyatta Johnson and State Sen. Anthony Williams will announce a $5,000 reward Monday in the shooting death of Clarice Douglas, 45, a bystander caught in cross fire Friday outside her Grays Ferry home. Police said Douglas was killed in a shootout between two men running on Corlies Street near Dickinson Street about 2:30 p.m. Friday. - Julie Shaw

A double shooting Friday afternoon in Grays Ferry left neighbors outraged over the death of an innocent bystander and wondering how to keep themselves and their children out of harm's way. "This . . . is really getting out of hand on these streets. What can we do?" James Parker asked as he looked across Corlies Street to the spot where a 45-year-old woman, whom neighbors identified as Clarice Douglas, was gunned down. Neighbors said she was a bighearted woman who was always seen riding bikes or playing football with her children, or sipping coffee with her mother on the porch where her life came to an unexpected end. A shootout between two men running along Corlies Street near Dickinson around 2:30 p.m. left the woman dead and one of the shooters, an unidentified 23-year-old man, in critical but stable condition Friday night at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania.

The city has agreed to pay $1.8 million to the family of a man killed when a police officer, chasing an armed suspect, fired into an East Germantown home during a 2008 New Year's party. The officer's bullets hit three people attending the party, including Abebe Isaac, a hospital maintenance worker and father of three young children. Isaac, 33, died a week later after suffering from an infection and complications. "We're hoping this will in some way help his children," said Alan Yatvin, an attorney for the Isaac family.

In Courtroom 306, where homicides are handled, Daniel Shelley stood Wednesday for a preliminary hearing in the murder of Hafeezah Nurid-Din, an Overbrook mother of four and a schoolteacher killed by a stray bullet through the heart. The hearing itself was testament to the violence and retaliation that kill innocents, and to the silence that hinders justice every day. Nurid-Din, who was 31, was returning from a trip to the grocery store on Oct. 8 when gunfire erupted outside her family's Malvern Avenue home.

A second man sought in an East Germantown shooting that wounded a woman inside her home has surrendered to police, authorities said today. Kairi Harris, 33, of the 400 block of East Rittenhouse Street, faces charges of attempted murder, aggravated assault and related offenses, police said. His cousin, Ahmae Harris, 21, was arrested on Tuesday and charged with the same offenses in the Dec. 23 shooting on the 5800 block of Morton Street. During the shooting, a bullet went through a window and struck a 53-year-old woman in the face, seriously wounding her. Police said she was an innocent bystander.

Police believe drugs played a role in a pair of shootings that left two men dead Tuesday night in different parts of Philadelphia. Joel Henderson, 28, of the 5000 block of Homestead Street, was shot three times and fatally wounded about 9:10 a.m. on the nearby 5000 block of Comly Street in the Wissinoming section of the Northeast, police said. Police were seeking a silver Nissan sedan in which the shooter and two other men fled. About 50 minutes later and on the other side of the city, Khalil Jackson, 22, was found dead from a gunshot wound to the head on the 6700 block of Buist Street in the Elmwood section of Southwest Philadelphia.

Question: My husband and I are good friends with a couple whose 10-year-old son appears to be a bully in training. This boy and our son were once good friends, but have thankfully drifted apart as the other boy grew meaner. I'm talking shoots-rabbits-in-his-backyard mean. Hitting-and-taunting mean. This isn't just our opinion. Other parents have shared their thoughts with us about the boy. The problem: We still value the friendship of his parents, who are oblivious to their child's ways.

A 21-year-old man was killed in South Philadelphia Thursday, just three blocks from where a double shooting took place less than 24 hours earlier, police said. Around noon, Jeff Hardee, of the 1600 block of South Jackson Street, was shot multiple times in the head on the 800 block of McClellan Street while riding a bicycle, police said. The gunman fled east on McClellan, police said. Hardee had been questioned Wednesday by detectives in connection with a double shooting on Sixth Street near Mifflin Street that left Rahfee Yates, 20, dead and a 14-year-old bystander in stable condition with four bullet wounds in his back, said Homicide Lt. Mel Williams.