Philly police: 3 men found shot to death inside home in apparent execution-style slaying

PHILADELPHIA – Three men were found dead in what appears to have been an execution-style slaying inside a northeast Philadelphia house, police said.

Officers responding to a 911 caller who reported screaming in front of the home in the city's Lawncrest neighborhood at 3:15 p.m. Thursday arrived to find the house ransacked and three men in their 20s who all were fatally shot in the head.

Two of the bodies were found tied up on the first floor, and the third victim was found in an upstairs bedroom, police spokesman Lt. John Stanford said Thursday night.

He said investigators are trying to determine if the triple slaying is the result of a botched home invasion robbery.

"It appears at this point that two people are tied down, the house is being ransacked," he said, "and a third individual walks in on the robbery taking place and there is some type of struggle."

The preliminary investigation suggests that the person who apparently walked in on the robbery was killed first upstairs and the two tied up downstairs were killed after that, Stanford said.

He said authorities were working to identify the victims and determine who among them were visiting the home and who lived there.

No arrests have been made. Witnesses told police they saw two men believed to be in their 20s running from the scene.

Investigators are canvassing the neighborhood and looking for any homes or businesses that may have captured the fleeing suspects on surveillance video, Stanford said.