Friday December 29 4:45 PM ET
Philadelphia Police Seek Motive in Killing of 7

PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) - Police were searching on Friday for the motive for one of Philadelphia's most brutal recent crimes, the fatal shooting of seven people and the wounding of three in a West Philadelphia house on Thursday night.

The police offered scant detail about the crime but said investigators were looking into whether it was drug-related.

``We know that a robbery occurred inside, but it would seem to me that you don't slaughter 10 people for a few bucks,'' Philadelphia police Capt. James Brady said. ``I think there's more of a deeper motive involved than a simple material robbery, but that's yet to be determined.''

Brady said it appeared that the victims had been forced to lie down and were then shot. The killers fled, and no arrests have been made. Initial police reports put four masked gunmen at the scene.

The police, who did not identify any of the victims at a Friday morning news conference, said they received a report of the shooting at about 8:15 p.m. EST on Thursday and arrived to find six men dead in the house's dining room.

A woman died later at a hospital. There were two male survivors and one female among the wounded, who were taken to a hospital. One survivor was identified by a friend as a 15-year-old boy.

Brady said that, based on police records, there was ``no indication that there was any drug activity at that location.'' He added, ``What was found at that location inside as far as evidence I'm not going to get into right now.''

The police said there was drug activity in the neighborhood. Some residents did not seem surprised to hear that the crime might have involved drugs.

``Probably was (drug activity there),'' said Arnold Goode, who lives across the street from the crime scene. ``(It's) just the neighborhood.''

The shootings occurred in a dilapidated row house in a block of sagging and boarded-up homes. Philadelphia District Attorney Lynne Abraham, who visited the scene on Friday morning, said the house was cold and full of broken furniture and trash.

She urged citizens to come forward with information to help the investigation, saying, ``This house did not exist in a vacuum.''

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