On the day after, the shootings are the talk among visitors to Philadelphia’s Christmas Village

Skaters returned to the ice rink at Dilworth Plaza. The businesses at Philadelphia’s Christmas Village at City Hall were open as usual, Christmas music in the background. But on a cold and crisp Saturday, the talk among the visitors was the violence that had erupted just outside the village on Friday.

Philadelphia police beefed up their presence in the area Saturday following the shooting in which three teenagers were wounded, one of whom was shot in the face and in critical condition, after a fight broke out in Dilworth Park around 4:30 p.m.

A 14-year-old boy was being charged as an adult with aggravated assault and related charges, police said Saturday.

Police said they were searching for additional suspects in an incident that shattered what had been a joyful gathering of holiday shoppers and skaters at the nearby Rothman Orthopaedics Ice Rink.

Kim Bates, a schoolteacher who lives in New Castle, Del., who broke into tears when she heard about the shootings, opined that people also need to search for answers.

“We have to do whatever we can to make life matter and help these kids understand that there’s more to life than violence,” said Bates.

Police reported at least four other shootings during the weekend, in which one person was killed and a total of seven other victims were hospitalized — including a 15-year-old — but the ones at Christmas Village received the most attention, given the venue.

Late Friday afternoon a group of teens started fighting in Dilworth Park, on the west side of City Hall. Then one of them, standing next to the ice rink and Christmas Village booths, pulled out a gun and started shooting, police said.

Jessica Schaefer, who was back at the Bluestem Botanicals booth on Saturday that she operates by the entrance of the rink, said she still could hear the shots, the rushing footsteps, and screams.

Amid the chaos, Schaefer said, she managed to stay calm enough to pull a couple people into her booth, as it was originally unclear where the shots were coming from. She realized minutes later that she was inside the police caution-tape perimeter marking off the shooting scene.

“I lived with this feeling that any breath could be my last because any bullet could come from anywhere at any time,” said the Philadelphia native. “You could be ice skating with your friends on a Friday afternoon and get shot in the face.”

The 14-year-old boy shot in the face was listed in extremely critical condition Saturday afternoon at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, police said. A 15-year-old boy shot in the right calf was in stable condition at Jefferson.

A third victim was taken to Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia by his mother, also with a gunshot wound to the calf, police said. He was reported in stable condition Saturday.

Noting that so many of the shoppers appeared to be going about their holiday-shopping business, Bates said that shootings have become all too common.

“I think for some people life goes on, maybe [they] are just numb to it because it’s not unusual anymore,” she said.

For others, the shootings evoked a certain fatalism.

Like every year, New Jersey resident Tony Kenny and his family were scheduled to visit the Christmas Village today. But when he arrived to pick up his sister, she told him about the shootings.

“It’s Philadelphia,” Kenny recalls telling her as the family made the hour-long drive to shop for Christmas gifts. “That’s normal in Philadelphia, isn’t it?”

Helene Jones, who lives in Montgomery County, said that she was wary about visiting the village with her daughters, but gave into the lure of the holiday magic.

“I jokingly said to the girls, you know, if you hear something run,” Jones said. “But, I feel safe, we just have to be on guard.”

Schaefer, the mother of two teenagers, said she believes it’s important that both parents and the city realize that “at that age everything is so serious to them.”