KIN DISPUTE TIE TO DRUGS

But some call slaying scene a drug house

Tamika Porter wore a gray sweatshirt bearing a picture of her slain
brother, who was murdered along with six other people in a Mill Creek
drug house Thursday night.

In the photo on her sweatshirt, handsome 18-year-old George Porter
has gold rings on nearly every finger. Thick gold rope chains are
around his neck and several gold bracelets on his wrist. He is
beaming as he leans on a friend's white Mercedes Benz.

George, who was a "popular" senior at Overbrook High School, would
rap with his friend, Tyrone Long Jr. 18, another one of the victims
killed in the massacre, Porter said.

"He wanted to join the Marines after he graduated," his sister said.
"That's all he would talk about, getting his diploma and joining the
Marines. My mother tried so hard, even though she was on welfare, for
us to have a better life. She's devastated."

Though police say the shootings were probably drug-related, she
insisted her brother had not been involved in drugs.

"He doesn't even smoke," she said angrily. "He doesn't even curse."

But she said she didn't know why he had been in the rowhouse on Lex
Street near Brown when the shootings occurred.

Yesterday, the victims' families were struggling with the loss of
their loved ones in such a violent, grisly manner.

One of the victims who was killed, Ronette Abrams, 33, was a graduate
of Philadelphia Community College where she earned an associate
degree in accounting, her cousin Valerie Johnson said.

She worked in accounting for about a year after graduating in the mid
'90's, but didn't like it, Johnson said.

She then got a job with Johnson at the Philadelphia District
Attorney's office, where she was an assistant to the chief of
Municipal Court. But bad times crept up on Abrams.

She lost her parents in the span of a year due to illnesses, and then
the father of her two children was murdered over a parking space
dispute.

Abrams, of 47th Street near Ogden, went into free fall, relatives said.

"The last part of her life was sad," said Johnson. "She got involved
in drugs and used to smoke crack in that house. So much had happened
to her and she became real depressed."

Johnson said she went with Abrams' sister to identify her body.

"We cried so much," she said.

Abrams is survived by a 14-year-old daughter and a 12-year-old son.

Calvin Helton Sr., whose 19-year-old son was slain, refused to
believe his son was involved in drugs.

Calvin Helton Jr. was a recent high-school graduate who was headed
for computer trade school. His father said his son, known as "CJ,"
went to the house to play video games.

He insisted that police reports that the shootings had been tied to
drug activity were false.

"That's not what was happening in that house, at least on that
night," said Helton, a cement contractor.

"That was the first time CJ had ever been to that house, and he went
there with a friend to play video games."

But CJ's cousin admitted he had been involved in the drug trade.

"CJ and his friends didn't do drugs, but they went to that house to
sell," said Rashon Berry, 13, Calvin's cousin.

Rashon said CJ, of Rosehill near Cambria, and several of his friends
had been selling drugs from the house since this summer.

"They were doing what they had to do to sell drugs," Rashon said.

Meanwhile, over at the home of Samuel "Malik" Harris, 15, the
youngest victim, his mother Sandra Fisk, was fast asleep, her head
resting on the kitchen table.

As she slept, her eight other children sat watching television in an
apartment in the Mill Creek public housing apartment, on June Court
near Fairmount Avenue - just down the street from where the rampage
happened.

Harris' grandmother, who did not want to give her name, said her
grandson was a 9th grader who loved basketball and football. Tall and
lanky, he loved to rap, watch television and had two girlfriends.

"He was a happy-go-lucky boy," she said. "I don't know what happened
that day," she said. "Or why."