Emily Jackson, 48, mother of two, wore a crisp, cream-colored pantsuit, a diamond-pendant necklace, and a diamond-pendant bracelet. Her body rested in a steel, copper-colored casket.

As the immediate family gathered for one last, private viewing, a handkerchief was placed over Jackson's face. Overcome by the moment, her daughter, Aqueelah, 24, collapsed to the church floor.

Five days earlier, Emily Jackson had just walked her aunt to the Route 13 trolley stop when a gray minivan drove down the 2000 block of South 60th Street in Southwest Philadelphia. A gunman in the van sprayed the sidewalk with bullets, hitting four people, Jackson among them. She died early the next morning.

The night Jackson was shot, Monday, July 10, two others were murdered in Philadelphia - all in a half-hour span.

The day she was buried, Saturday, July 15, five more people were slain.

The bloody evidence is mounting that yes, it finally might be time.

Yesterday, within 21 minutes - less time than it would take to watch your average sitcom - three people were shot dead in the streets of Philadelphia, including a cabbie who wanted nothing more than to fill his tank with gas.

Drug deaths are outpacing homicides in Philadelphia, even as the bodies piled up during one of the city's deadliest weekends with 19 shot - six of them fatally.

As of yesterday, city records show there were 266 drug deaths. This compares to 211 homicides, more than 80 percent of them committed with handguns.

And authorities expect both homicides and drug deaths to surpass last year's totals, when there were 488 drug deaths and 380 homicides.

Cops said that about 4 a.m. Saturday a 21-year-old woman and her 23-year-old boyfriend were returning to her house on Salmon Street near Cumberland when two armed men forced their way inside, tied them up with electrical cord and demanded money and valuables.

Upon hearing the commotion, police said, a third victim, 25 - the 21-year-old's roommate - came downstairs, where she was grabbed by one of the assailants, taken back upstairs and sexually assaulted.

Downstairs, the other assailant beat the boyfriend severely. Then, he forced the girlfriend into the kitchen and sexually assaulted her.

When it comes to homicide in Philadelphia this year, one day of the week is pretty much like any other.

There's no weekend blip.

That is, perhaps, the most remarkable fact to be gleaned from a review of the city's 185 slayings in the first half of 2006. That review shows that, as was the case last year, the typical victim of homicide in Philadelphia is a young black male. And he has been typically killed by a handgun.

"To people who aren't legitimately employed, one night of the week isn't much different from another," Professor Roger Lane said. "I think what we're seeing in Philadelphia reflects the high level of poverty and unemployment among younger, black males who, in large part, are both the perpetrators and the victims of these crimes."

Castor Gardens resident Jeff Campbell recently moved to the 7000 block of Rutland St. The former New Yorker was just getting to know his neighbors.

On Monday night, his small talk turned into whispers of comfort as one of those new acquaintances lay dying in his arms from gunshot wounds.

"I kept him conscious," Campbell said. "He kept going in and out. There’s not much you can do with a hole in your chest."

The neighbor, identified as David Auguayo, 27, was shot to death shortly before midnight during a robbery outside his home. He was pronounced dead at the scene at 12:10 a.m.

A second victim, who has yet to be identified, was shot in the legs and groin. He was taken to Albert Einstein Hospital and is listed in critical condition, police said.

Witnesses said three black males approached the victims while they were talking on Auguayo’s steps and demanded money, according to Lt. Philip Riehl, of the homicide unit. When Auguayo tried to flee inside his home, a suspect began pistol-whipping him and then fired shots. The suspects fled on foot.

Riehl believes that two handguns were used in the incident, but detectives are unsure if they were automatics or revolvers. No other information was available on the suspects.

Auguayo was one of three people shot to death in the city Monday night. Rutland Street was quiet late Tuesday morning as Campbell and another neighbor, Joseph Rivera, talked outside.

"This is how it is most normal days," Rivera said of the silent street. "There’s no violence on the block. Everybody works."

Rivera said his 2-year-old daughter often played with Auguayo’s young son.

"I was just talking to this guy at six o’clock last night," Rivera said while holding his other young daughter. "I wish I had been outside when it happened. I would have helped."

The violent evening came two weeks after the police department started a new anti-crime unit and less than a week after state Sen. Vince Fumo (D-1st dist.) announced the creation of a task force targeting illegal gun sales.

Raj Bhakta, the Republican candidate in the 13th Congressional District, is calling for more prisons and stricter sentences as ways to combat violent crimes.

Bhakta credits the police department for making arrests but blames lenient judges and prison overcrowding for crimes committed by violent offenders. He wonders why "Mayor Street and his cronies" don’t address the matter.

The candidate cited the case of Solomon Montgomery, whom Common Pleas Court Judge Renee Cardwell Hughes found not guilty of a shooting in 2001. Montgomery is now charged with killing 15th Police District community relations officer Gary Skerski in May.

Bhakta, who is challenging freshman Democratic Rep. Allyson Schwartz, said crime is causing a plummeting quality of life in the Northeast. He’s preparing "Save the Northeast" rallies.

The Republican said Pennsylvania is a big state with lots of room for prisons. "Find a field somewhere in Pennsylvania, build a prison and fill it with criminals, and when that gets filled, find another field," he said. "We cannot allow criminals to run our streets any longer, and in Congress I will chase down the funding for it."

Karl May, 45, a paralyzed veteran of the 1991 Persian Gulf War, woke up to the sound of more than 20 gunshots in Frankford on Wednesday.

"I thought I was in Desert Storm again," he said as he sat in his wheelchair in his Hawthorne Street home, a few hours after the 5:47 a.m. shooting in the 5200 block of Duffield Street, one block over.

The scene looked like a war zone. There were 21 shell casings from the gun battle. Bullets ripped through three vehicles.

Cops usually expect the worst of the week's crime to commence Friday nights.

Not so yesterday.

Before many residents had even polished off breakfast, police were busy with seven incidents of death and violence.

We accept violence in America. In various instances, we even encourage violence. It is displayed prominently in movies and television programs. Our music is laced with it. Pause for a moment. Try and recall the last day you lived through without hearing one violent word or witnessing one violent image or act.

As a society, we have become numb to violence. In Philadelphia, violence has reached epidemic proportions. There is more than one murder per day.

From behind the glass windows of their offices, the daily bloodshed may not reach or affect city officials. Yet, the bodies being wheeled into emergency rooms and morgues are real. The fact that that the magnitude of this crisis has not been spoken to is both disturbing and typical.

Raymond S.

They call them "bounce-backs."

They are people like David Satchell, the 19-year-old who was in Frankford Hospital-Torresdale yesterday after being shot while still recovering from previous gunshot wounds.

Philadelphia Daily News recounts Northeast double homicide.

Lori Knight said she knew something was wrong the minute she got off the bus from work yesterday afternoon and some friends were there to meet her.

The friends had walked up the street from the St. Regis Apartments, at Tremont Street near Roosevelt Boulevard in Bustleton, to tell Knight there had been a shooting inside her apartment.

Her son, David J. Knight, 18, and a friend, Robert Wyatt, 21, had been shot to death shortly after noon.

"How could this happen?" asked Knight. "I can't believe the world I'm living in."