I think that the larger crime question is one that the city has been unwilling to address for quite some time, starting with the emergence of Cambodian gang struggle in Southwest Philly [this amorphous zone that until recently wasn't even discussed on the news; I recall local news programs referencing another similar area -- Frankford/Kensington, which accounts for much of North Philadelphia -- in equally mythological language] to whatever it is that's happening now, much of which seems to be interpersonal [which all murder is, but I get your meaning] and/or drug related, but now that it's warmer out, there's a greater likelihood that innocent bystanders will get hurt, cf. this weekend.
I think it's scariest that there are no answers out there.
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Crime, no doubt, will always be with us.
Tokyo - to cite a popular example of low crime that I know from direct experience - is rather safe (even slimy Western expat heavy Roppongi Hills, which is now painfully chic), and yet the Yak are quite active with their various operations.
The questions are: why murder and why an increase? I don't know and I'm in neither a philosophical nor a sociological mood.
So let's move on and consider triage for a moment.
Someone with wonky stats and studies at their fingertips will no doubt correct me (and I welcome it) but I believe the countermeasure, the "answer", is straightforward: community policing, in some well designed and relevant form. That is, cops working in close cooperation with well informed community groups and establishing mini stations in sketchy areas.
Of course, community policing can't prevent intimate troubles which become visible only when they reach their ballistic denouement but surely neighborhoods possess the necessary collective intel to isolate and remove dangerous people from circulation (particularly career criminals everyone knows are consistently up to dirty doings).
This seems like an effective, long term strategy for dealing both with general crime and closed situations such as the Cambodian gang problem.
[On a not wholly unrelated note: last year, I spent several weeks at a friend's condo in Flushing NY. One night, a fierce gun battle erupted between Chinese and Korean youth gangs whose communities share - sometimes uneasily - a dense 'ethnic enclave'. The NYPD weren't particularly effective - no one was willing to talk - and the media, the "mainstream media", didn't cover it. Although I heard the rat-a-tat-tat and saw the muzzle flashes from my window it didn't happen as far as the usual infospaces were concerned.]
Unfortunately, community policing is very expensive and not as machismo-riffic as night vision equipped helicopters hovering above on over watch and other 'let's pretend we're in Baghdad doing counter-insurgency' style actions.
I'm sure there are significant political obstacles - many related to the expense and lack of patience - as well.
.d.