Seven dead in Philadelphia shooting

Friday, December 29th 2000, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

PHILADELPHIA (AP) _ Seven people were fatally shot Thursday after masked men broke into a run-down home in a part of town known for heavy drug activity, police said. Three others were wounded.

Four people wearing masks shot the victims, according to interviews with survivors, Capt. James Brady said. No suspects had been immediately arrested and no weapon had been recovered.

Six people were found dead at the home and another died at a hospital.

One of the wounded was in critical condition, according a spokeswoman at the University of Pennsylvania hospital. A second was listed in serious condition and the third in fair condition.

Police said they did not immediately know whether drugs played a role in the shootings. But a neighbor described the house, about 200 feet away from the Martha Washington Elementary School, as a ``drug house.''

``It's sad,'' said Eugene Whiters, who lives a block away from the building surrounded by a dozen dilapidated homes with boarded-up windows, sagging awnings and overgrown lawns littered with fallen bricks.

Outside the home, some neighbors tried to get information about family members who they believed might have been in the house.

``I seen my little daughter running up the street,'' said a woman who declined to give her name. ``She just said some guys ran past her with a gun. I told her to go in the house.''

Tina Washington, 44, said she had often pulled young adults off the corner to get them away from drug activity.

``You pray, and you talk to them, and you keep talking to them until you're blue in the face,'' she said.

It was the nation's second multiple shooting in two days. On Tuesday, seven people were slain at a Massachusetts Internet company, allegedly by a co-worker.