Gunmen

Sixteen-year-old Brian Samuel led a princely life in a decaying mill town. His grandparents gave him a flashy red car last summer when his feet could barely touch the pedals. His parents lavished gifts on him, including a top-of-the-line bicycle, a dirt bike and a new computer when a program wouldn't run on his old one. Samuel also was privileged to have two strong parents who worked hard as home contractors. As head of the junior ushers at church, he sang "No Greater Love" in the choir at Easter and often addressed adults as "ma'am" and "sir.

Three men were shot and wounded - one critically - and another man was pistol-whipped by two gunmen inside two West Philadelphia homes early today. Police believe the incidents might be drug-related. According to investigators, the shootings occurred within minutes of each other in a pair of rowhouses on Delancey Street near 54th shortly before 5 a.m. In the first incident, said police, a man identified as Fred Gordon, 30, was shot once in each leg during an argument after the two gunmen barged into the house.

Police talk with the owner of a Northeast jewelry store that was robbed yesterday by two armed men. Another officer with gun drawn (top) searches a railyard near the Roosevelt Expressway in East Falls for the robbers. After the gunmen entered La Caridad Jewelers on Cottman Avenue near Rutland Street about 11:30 a.m. and demanded valuables, the owner, who was not identified, pulled out a gun and fired four shots, which struck the store window. The bandits fled, but were apprehended 20 minutes later after a car and foot chase that ended in East Falls.

Three armed men went gunning for a guy who had threatened one of them with a gun. When they didn't find their target, they fired at the man's brother and another man on Opal Street near 24th, on Nov. 24, 1998, Assistant District Attorney Dawn Burke said yesterday. One of their stray bullets almost killed a 4-year-old boy sitting in a car with his mother, his younger brother and his grandmother. Little Germaine Lipscomb, now 5, suffered brain damage, but he can still remember the loud bang before losing consciousness, Burke said.

A 38-year-old man was gunned down last night by two assailants inside the doorway of the East Germantown store that he owned, police said.. The victim, Owen Edwards, of Logan, was shot just inside the door of R's Variety Store at Nedro and Wister Streets around 10 p.m. Police said the killing did not occur during a robbery attempt but rather the attackers had come looking for Edwards. Witnesses told police that they heard several gunshots, which police believed were fired from a revolver.

MONTERREY, Mexico - Two dozen gunmen burst into a casino in northern Mexico yesterday, doused it with gasoline and started a fire that trapped gamblers inside, killing at least 45 people and injuring a dozen more, authorities said. The fire at the Casino Royale in Monterrey, a city that has seen a surge in drug cartel-related violence, represented one of the deadliest attacks on an entertainment center in Mexico since President Felipe Calderon launched an offensive against drug cartels in late 2006.

Two gunmen forced their way into Houlihan's restaurant shortly after closing Monday morning, ordered five employees into a walk-in freezer and made off with an undisclosed amount of cash, police said. Lt. Michael Arlen of Middletown Township police said the gunmen hid behind a dumpster in the parking lot of the East Lincoln Highway restaurant and surprised two workers taking out trash about 1 a.m. Forcing the pair back inside, Arlen said, the suspects rounded up three other employees and then bound the wrists of all five with duct tape, placed the five in the freezer and ordered them not to move or call police.

Gunmen firing from a car killed two Roman Catholics yesterday in what was thought to be Protestant revenge for a new series of attacks by the Irish Republican Army. The gunmen escaped after the killings in the Ardoyne area of northern Belfast and abandoned their car in the Protestant Shankill district, about two miles away, police said. Early today, hours after the killings, Catholic youths rioted in at least a dozen towns across the province, lighting bonfires, hurling firebombs and torching cars to mark the 17th anniversary of Britain's former policy of interning IRA suspects without trial.

If you loved "Once Upon a Time in the West" and "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly," and you want to see them both again - at the same time - then "Gunmen" is your picture. This new action vehicle for Mario Van Peebles (he didn't direct) is woven from the two Sergio Leone Western classics, updated with a contemporary south- of-the-border location and spun as a modern biracial buddy movie/adventure comedy. Van Peebles is a DEA agent teamed with a bandit (Christopher Lambert)

A supermarket security guard, confronted by three holdup men with their guns drawn, wounded two of them in an exchange of gunfire, and then held them at gunpoint last night until authorities arrived, police said. One shot was fired at the guard, Eugene Hollins, 39, of West Philadelphia, was not injured, police said. The two wounded gunmen, ages 17 and 18, were charged with robbery. The younger male, whom police did not identify, was shot through the shoulder and admitted to Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in critical condition with a bullet lodged in his chest.

Dabbing her eyes with tissues, Jessica Nunez endured nearly two hours of questioning Tuesday about the West Philadelphia store robbery that escalated into the massacre of her father, mother, and aunt last year. Aided by a Spanish-language interpreter, the 20-year-old woman identified Nalik Scott, 30, and Ibrahim Muhammed, 31, as the gunmen who unleashed the carnage in her family's tiny corner grocery at 50th and Parrish Streets. "Obviously, what happened to this family was a barbaric slaughter," Municipal Judge Patrick Dugan said, ordering both defendants to be tried on charges of murder and related offenses.

Staff Report Two men forced their way into a home in the Frankford section of Philadelphia early this morning and shot the 39-year-old father of two children living there. Police say they were notified shortly before 4 a.m. of the incident on the 1000 block of Fillmore Place. Police said two men broke in through the front door of the home where four adults and two children were sleeping. The bandits, one armed with a shotgun, rousted the family from their beds, police said.

MOGADISHU, Somalia - A British tourist freed Wednesday by Somalian pirates after six months in captivity said she did not know for weeks that her husband was killed in the raid on a luxury beach resort on the Kenyan coast. "I just assumed he was alive," Judith Tebbutt said, speaking haltingly in a video broadcast by the BBC, adding that her son, Oliver, told her of the killing. "That was difficult," she said, her head and body cloaked in long gray headscarf with a pink floral print and her face marked by grief.

HARRISBURG - Joel Shrum had already traveled abroad several times and had a growing interest in helping people in far-flung places, yet his parents were still surprised when he told them he planned to move to Yemen to learn Arabic. They read about the country, visited him there, and became comfortable with it. And they said their son had become a teacher and grown to love his work and Yemeni friends. Shrum, 29, was killed Sunday by two gunmen on a motorcycle while driving in the city of Taiz.

Authorities have arrested a suspect in the home invasion in Strawberry Mansion that killed a 35-year-old man and injured his wife last week. Ali Marsh was arrested late Saturday by U.S. Marshals and officers from the Philadelphia and Plymouth Meeting police departments at a Marriott hotel in Plymouth Meeting, said Chief Deputy U.S. Marshal John Patrignani. A second suspect, Charles Davis, is still at large, according to media reports. Shortly before 4 a.m. Monday, two masked gunmen entered the the home of John and Sherrell Paul, on the 3200 block of Cecil B. Moore Avenue, while the Pauls and their two young children slept.

John Paul was a family man. Neighbors on his Strawberry Mansion block said that they rarely saw Paul apart from his wife, Sherrell, and that no matter where the couple went, their two young sons were always in tow. "I'd see them at the grocery store, taking the kids to football," said Raymond Marrero, who until recently lived across the street from the family's house in the 3200 block of Cecil B. Moore Avenue. "Even if it was just going to wash the laundry, they were always all together as a family.

ATHENS, Greece - Two masked gunmen stormed into a small museum at the birthplace of the ancient Olympics in southern Greece on Friday, smashing display cases with hammers and making off with dozens of antiquities up to 3,200 years old, authorities said. It was the second major museum theft in as many months in debt-crippled Greece, and a culture ministry unionist said spending cuts have compromised security at hundreds of museums and ancient sites across the country. With unemployment at 21 percent and Greece's economy in its fifth year of recession, crime, poverty, and homeless rates also have been increasing.

Police have arrested the second of two alleged gunmen in a triple slaying and robbery attempt at a West Philadelphia grocery store in September. Nalik Shariff Scott, 30, of the 1300 block of South 24th Street in South Philadelphia, was picked up Saturday without incident, authorities said. No further details were released. Another suspect, Ibrahim Muhammad, was taken into custody Friday. He allegedly shot the owner of Lorena's Grocery and the owner's wife and her sister during the holdup attempt.

Police have arrested the second of two alleged gunmen in a triple slaying and robbery attempt at a West Philadelphia grocery store in September. Nalik Shariff Scott, 30, of the 1300 block of South 24th Street in South Philadelphia, was picked up Saturday without incident, authorities said. No further details were released. Another suspect, Ibrahim Muhammad, was taken into custody on Friday. He allegedly shot the owner of Lorena's Grocery, his wife and her sister during the holdup attempt.