Slaying Toll Already Equals Last Year's

About 61 percent of the cases have resulted in an arrest this year.

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The majority of the slayings -- 130 -- were carried out with firearms. Twenty-one were committed with knives.

Among the victims were 13 juveniles.

Ramsey, who was named commissioner of the Philadelphia police department last week, said homicides are a "complicated problem." He said he monitored them every day in a crime briefing, which helped him understand what was happening. Homicides declined in seven of the nine years he was chief.

"There's no one right way to do this stuff. It boils down to results," Ramsey said. "It's not the kind of problem where you can come up with one key solution."

He said the department has to be nimble. He cited an example from last year, when fights during street gambling led to four homicides.

"I told the officers, 'You see guys shooting dice in the alley, don't think you're too busy to go over there,' " Ramsey said. "You have to have an understanding of what's driving the arguing."

Staff writers Candace Rondeaux, Katie Shaver and Tom Jackman contributed to this report.