Philadelphia’s Homicide Tally Shows Dramatic Drop

English: This is my own work, Public Domain Photograph, not copyrighted Ed Yakovich http://www.flickr.com/photos/10396190@N04 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Editor’s note:  Great news!

PHILLY’S HOMICIDE rate is raising some eyebrows – but this time, it’s for all of the right reasons.

From the start of the year through Wednesday night, 54 homicides were recorded, a 39 percent drop from the same period a year ago, according to police statistics.

Shootings were down 20 percent, from 274 to 218, and overall violent crime fell 9 percent through March 31, the last date for which those figures were available.

For a city that has long been haunted by stubbornly high homicide tallies, the lower figures represent an encouraging sign of progress.

Whether that progress can be maintained through the notoriously violent spring and summer months is anyone’s guess.

Read more:  http://www.philly.com/philly/news/20130405_Philadelphia_s_homicide_tally_shows_dramatic_drop.html

CHOP Doctor Murder Suspect Described As Helpful Family Man ‘Just Snapped’

If there is something in the makeup of Jason Smith that might have presaged the slaying to which police say he has confessed, nothing was immediately apparent Thursday.

Neighbors in the Crescent Lane section of Levittown, Bucks County – where the 36-year-old exterminator lived with his girlfriend, their young daughter, his girlfriend’s mother, and other relatives – described him as helpful, a family man who took his boxer, Tyson, out for frequent walks.

They said he showed no signs of a violent temper.

Yet Philadelphia police officials, at a news conference Thursday, said an explosive argument between Smith and Melissa Ketunuti apparently triggered a murderous rage.

Read more:  http://www.philly.com/philly/news/breaking/20130124_Suspect_in_doctors_death_described_as_helpful_family_man.html