Cops: Man hailing a cab in Phila. is beaten to death by strangers who thought he was yelling at them

(CBS/AP) PHILADELPHIA - So much for being the City of Brotherly Love.

A man trying to hail a cab with his girlfriend was beaten to death by a group of men who piled out of a car, perhaps believing that when he was yelling for a taxi, he was yelling at them, investigators said.

Kevin Kless, 23, was shouting at a cab early Saturday morning near the Liberty Bell when a three men got out of a car behind the cab and began punching and kicking him. Kless, a 2010 Temple University graduate, fell to the sidewalk. He was pronounced dead at the hospital several hours later.

The three men and the car's driver drove off and investigators are trying to track them down.

The city announced a $10,000 reward for arrests and convictions, and Mayor Michael Nutter took to Twitter to condemn the killing: "Encourage ANYONE who knows or saw anything about this incident to

give us info, we need to catch these people, asap!" the mayor wrote.

The attack was the 20th homicide so far in Philadelphia, up from 12 at the same point last year.

Last week, a 30-year-old man with a long arrest record was charged with gunning down a carload of seven teenagers who had been feuding with his stepsons. Three of the boys died.

Police said that when the cab stopped, Kless spoke with the driver, who then drove off. The men in the car behind the cab apparently thought Kless was yelling at them, and three of them got out and began beating him.

Kless was a good student and a pleasant and easygoing person who was rising in the field, said R.B. Drennan, associate professor and chairman of Temple's Department of Risk, Insurance and Health Care Management.

"He was a good, solid ambassador for our program," he said. "He was well on his way."