Shooter

NASIR PINKNEY and four fellow members of the Wheels of Soul motorcycle club rolled up to their West Philadelphia clubhouse at 6 a.m. Sunday after a 12-hour drive from Chicago, where they had attended a funeral for another member of the brotherhood. The men, who had taken turns driving an SUV, were getting ready to go their separate ways when a gunman near the club's door opened fire on them, club members said Monday. Pinkney, 31, was shot in the head and taken to the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, where he later died after being taken off life support.

Bill Ellerbee should don one of those 2-foot-high white hats while coaching Simon Gratz's basketball team this season. Every so often, he should hold practice in a mess hall. Public League Division B fans are about to learn how well Ellerbee can cook, as the ingredients for success are definitely available. Twin guards Mark and Steve Patterson are the pesky, waterbug types. Athletic wing shooter William "Beau" Thompson finally appears ready to realize his potential. Aaron McKie, a 6-3 junior, ia adept both close to, and away from, the basket.

Police continue to search for the ruthless ambush shooter who pumped seven bullets into a Penn's Landing bartender at point blank range Friday night before speeding away. Robert Rivers, 30, continued his struggle to recover at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, where a spokesman said his condition "has remained unchanged. . .through the weekend. " Rivers was taken to Jefferson shortly before 11 p.m. Friday, when he was listed in critical condition. Rivers was wounded seven times when a masked gunman walked up to Rivers' car in a Penn's Landing parking lot and opened fire with a 9mm handgun.

It is the most desired and lacking skill in the NBA - the ability to shoot from the perimeter. One of the worst-shooting teams is the New Jersey Nets, who shot 37 percent in the NBA Finals against San Antonio. The Nets took a player many labeled the best shooter in the draft in 6-foot-7 Kyle Korver of Creighton with the 51st pick in the second round and then traded his rights to the 76ers for an undisclosed amount of cash. Nets general manager Rod Thorn issued a statement in response to questions about Korver and why a team that can't shoot would trade the best shooter in the draft to an Atlantic Division rival.

Jerry Armstrong, 23, ignored a stay-away court order and went to visit his former paramour on Jan. 8, 1999. It was a fatal mistake. Once inside the home on Reno Street near 43rd, Armstrong confronted the woman's new boyfriend and hit him on the head with a gun, said public defenders Marc A. Bookman and Karl D. Schwartz. Nathaniel Ragsdale, who was in another room, heard a shot, then a commotion, and rushed in brandishing a gun, said Assistant District Attorney Yvonne Ruiz.

JOE NEARY wants the man who shot his brother off the street. "This can't happen to somebody else. It's too painful," Neary said of the ordeal that began for his family last Tuesday, when police say that a gunman accosted Kevin Neary, 29, outside his Northern Liberties apartment and shot him in the neck, possibly paralyzing him. "It's such a senseless act," Joe Neary, 31, said. "Right now, I just don't have words for it. " He said that his brother's spinal column is so severely damaged, he may never be able to move his limbs again.

Montrell Barrett, 19, lost his cool when he looked out of his third-floor bedroom window in Germantown and saw three men he suspected of having broken into his car early on March 12. Barrett, of Logan Street near Greene, grabbed a gun and began firing at the trio, who were inside another auto, Assistant District Attorney John J. Doyle said yesterday. Douglas Scott, 25, of Redfield Street near Haddington Avenue, was shot in the chest and died. Samuel Johnson survived gunshot wounds to his arm and leg. The third man was unhurt.

St. Joseph's guard Pat Carroll, the team's top returning scorer, practiced yesterday for the first time since dislocating his right shoulder during a practice session on Oct. 26 and was listed as possible for the Hawks' game today against Davidson at the Palestra. His participation will be a game-time decision. Carroll, a 6-foot-5 senior lefthander who is among the top three-point shooters in the country, was cleared to practice after a reevaluation by team orthopedist Michael Ciccotti.

Philadelphia has its share of hate crimes, too. One was played out in court yesterday. Vincent Meier, 50, who is white and who has often boasted loudly that he hates African-Americans, pleaded no defense to charges of firing five shots at six black kids outside his home on Taney Street near Master last Jan. 23. One of the bullets seriously injured 15-year-old Marcus Kane, said Assistant District Attorney Richard Negrin. After surgery, Kane recovered from a wound to his groin area, but he still has nightmares about the incident, his mother said.

Marshall Carmichael's family was angry. In their minds, Common Pleas Judge Jane Cutler Greenspan had just sentenced an innocent man to 28 to 80 years in jail for shooting and wounding two people inside a West Philadelphia home last year. So they vented their frustrations on two police sergeants outside of the courtroom. "You wrecked my boy's life," shouted Marshall's mother, Christine Carmichael, to Officers Michael J. Chitwood Jr. and Philip Riehl. "He didn't do it. " "You don't know what's going on out there," said one of her daughters as other family members also complained.

WASHINGTON - An Idaho man charged with trying to assassinate President Obama by shooting at the White House practiced with his weapon for six months and may have been upset about the country's marijuana policy, prosecutors said in a newly filed court document. Oscar Ramiro Ortega-Hernandez is awaiting trial for the 2011 shooting, which did not injure anyone but left more than five bullet marks on the Executive Mansion. Prosecutors filed a 14-page court document Tuesday that adds additional detail about Ortega-Hernandez, who allegedly shot at the White House the night of Nov. 11 while the president and first lady were away.

TYRIRK HARRIS' FAMILY tried to convince a Common Pleas Court judge to go easy on him, to recognize that he'd always been a good kid who never gave his folks any trouble. But in the end, there just wasn't any way of getting around the fact that on Valentine's Day a year ago, Harris, 28, shot his unarmed Tacony neighbor to death because of an argument. An argument over dog poop. A jury convicted Harris, 28, in February of third-degree murder for pumping six bullets into Franklin Manuel Santana, 47, when the two had an argument about Harris' German shepherd and Chihuahua defecating on Santana's lawn.

HOW FITTING for Doug Collins to draw upon Shakespeare in his final, melodramatic performance as Sixers head coach. A surprise playoff contender in his first two seasons, Collins ended Act III of his tenure by exiting stage left,where he will sit, for 5 years, now the power behind the throne. Collins will advise Josh Harris for $2 million, half of what he was going to make as coach next season. And thus, the production loses its star. Since his arrival, Collins, a former No. 1 overall pick of the franchise, has been center stage, the team's marquee draw.

Amanda Martinez was standing on a girlfriend's stoop in Kensington on Tuesday afternoon when the fighting started on Somerset Street. Martinez was on Water Street, a narrow one-way that runs into Somerset. She walked toward the commotion. "Leave it alone," a friend told her. "Don't go over there. " But Martinez wanted to take a look. There were about 20 to 30 people fighting on Somerset, police said, a melee that began between two women, then escalated to include men. According to witnesses and police, a man in the brawl fired a gun in the air, then another man fired into the crowd.

A man wrongfully jailed for 10 months in the slaying of a minister's son filed a civil rights suit on Tuesday against Delaware County, the City of Chester, and the detectives involved in the investigation. "We believe this was a egregious failure to investigate this incident," said Joseph S. Oxman, attorney for Tahmir Craig, who was released from jail last month after prosecutors acknowleged he had been charged mistakenly in the Memorial Day shooting. District Attorney Jack Whelan said the lawsuit suit was not unexpected; Craig's attorney had made his intentions known when he was released.

NEWTOWN, CONN. - When Adam Lanza walked out of his house for the last time, he left behind firearms, knives and more than 1,600 rounds of ammunition - taking only four guns. They would suffice. Warrants released Thursday provide the most insight to date into the world of the 20-year-old gunman, a recluse who played violent video games in a house packed with weaponry. The inventory of items taken from the home included books on autism, a vast array of weapon paraphernalia and images of what appears to be a dead person covered with plastic and blood.

For about two weeks, it seemed that Chester County sheep owner Gabriel Pilotti would not have to worry about charges for shooting and killing two dogs belonging to a neighbor after he found them on his property. Now, he does. Amid a growing uproar, Chester County District Attorney Thomas P. Hogan on Friday charged Pilotti, 72, of Chester Springs, with two counts of cruelty to animals and one count of recklessly endangering another person. He did so, he said, after further investigation concluded that Pilotti's actions were not shielded by a state law that permits the execution of dogs attacking domestic animals.

A federal judge is to decide Friday whether international kidnapper David Matusiewicz should be sent back to prison - but she could make that decision without even mentioning the shootout that left his ex-wife, her friend, and his father dead. Thomas Matusiewicz opened fire Monday in the New Castle County Courthouse, killing Christine Belford and her friend Laura Mulford and injuring two Capitol Police officers before taking his own life, according to Delaware State Police. State police have not filed charges, but in a search warrant served Tuesday , investigators listed David Matusiewicz and his mother, Lenore, as willing accomplices in the slayings.

MINNEAPOLIS - A Minnesota man accused of standing in the street and firing at passing cars - killing a 9-year-old boy - had roughly 200 rounds of ammunition stuffed into his jacket pocket, a backpack and the fanny pack he was wearing when arrested, prosecutors said Wednesday. Nhan Lap Tran, 34, was charged Wednesday with second-degree murder and other counts in Monday's shootings in the St. Paul suburb of Oakdale. Fourth-grader Devin Aryal died in the shootings, and his mother and another woman were injured.