People gathered outside Dobbs on South Street to listen to live music Sunday night, even after Mayor Jim Kenney had ordered the street closed to pedestrians and vehicles.

Ron Dangler, Dobbs’ owner said, “There’s no reason for us to shut down. Why would I? What happened last night was tragic but it can’t stop businesses. We had open-mic jam sessions scheduled for tonight. And I asked the band members if they want to keep going and they said sure. They didn’t want to cancel either.”

— Tom Gralish

At the Roots Picnic on Sunday following a set by the Soulquarians, DJ Diamond Kuts spoke about the shootings on South Street the night before, as well as gun violence in Philadelphia in general.

“Yo, we’ve lost a lot of people. We got to do better,” she said.

She asked for a moment of silence, and followed it by playing Meek Mill’s “Dreams and Nightmares (Intro).”

— Dan DeLuca

Multiple gunmen shot into crowds gathered on South Street late Saturday night, killing three people, wounding 11, and bringing chaos and terror to one of Philadelphia’s most popular nightlife districts.

Police were still piecing together on Sunday what had happened around 11:30 p.m. the night before, when two men began shooting at each other during a fight.

Within seconds of the initial gunshots, police said, other people began shooting into crowds gathered on the street, and a police officer shot at one of the suspected gunmen. Five guns were used by the assailants, leading police to believe there may have been five shooters.

The mass shooting by multiple gunmen put another spotlight on gun violence, both in Philadelphia, where 94 people have been shot in the last 10 days, and in America, which has been roiled by mass shootings in Buffalo, N.Y. and Uvalde, Texas. And it wasn’t the only one on Saturday night: Hours after the terror in Philadelphia, two similar shootings near a nightclub and a strip mall occurred in Tennessee and Arizona.

With 14 people hit by gunfire, the South Street shooting left more people wounded or killed than any episode of gun violence in Philadelphia since at least 2015, when 11 people were shot during a barbecue in the city’s Mantua neighborhood. It was the first shooting on South Street in which multiple people were killed since 2015, when the police began regularly publishing gun-violence statistics.

» READ MORE: Chaos and terror on South Street: Multiple gunmen fired into crowds on ‘a dark day for Philadelphia’

— Justine McDaniel, Chris Palmer, Anna Orso, Max Marin, and Ellie Rushing

By 9 p.m. Sunday, police were blocking people from walking up South Street.

“South Street is closed,” officers told people passing by on foot.

There were still people eating in a handful of restaurants that were open Sunday night. They appeared to be finishing up, but police weren’t closing down businesses or asking restaurant patrons to leave.

— Rita Giordano

As police began positioning barricades to shut the South Street corridor to car traffic at about 8 pm Sunday, the scene was much quieter than the night before. People were eating in some of the restaurants and drinking in some of the bars, and enjoying the evening breeze at outdoor tables — although fewer than a normal Sunday night.

”I think it was absolutely terrible,” said Mike Almand, 62, of Collingswood, waiting to order at Jim’s Steaks. “But you have to live your life and not be scared of what might happen.”

Jadah Orilus, 22, of Brooklyn was eating outside Copabanana with friends. She said they were told it was a quiet night. ”They said it’s completely different from yesterday,” she said.

Some people remained at restaurants past 8 p.m. — the time Mayor Jim Kenney ordered the closed to pedestrians and vehicles — but the street was very quiet and many businesses had already closed.

Some motorcycles and ATVs rumbled down South Street earlier in the evening. Members of the Queen Village Neighbors Association already had a meeting scheduled for Wednesday with police, at which they planned to air their complaints about the vehicles and other concerns.

As evening began to fall on the popular dining, drinking, and entertainment district, police vehicles set up a low-key but clear presence along South Street at Second and Third Streets to block traffic. A police vehicle, lights flashing, blocked South Street near Sixth Street.

— Rita Giordano

A section of South Street and the surrounding area will be closed to vehicles and pedestrians between 8 p.m. Sunday and 6 a.m. Monday “to avoid congregation, and due to patterns of recent violence in the area and ongoing safety concerns,” the city announced Sunday evening.

The area between Front and Sixth Streets and between Bainbridge and Lombard Streets will be closed. The city said exceptions apply to residents and property owners in that area, medical personnel, the media, and law enforcement.

— Laura McCrystal

The police department had extra officers on South Street Saturday night, according to Deputy Commissioner Joel Dales, and, as is routine, adjusted deployments across the city based on tips or calls for situations they needed to look into.

But South Street had a dense crowd and is a large area, and Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw noted that the department has a longstanding staffing shortage due to retirements, recruiting challenges, and other issues.

Still, she defended her department’s staffing levels in the area on Saturday, and said the department would send more officers to the South Street area Sunday night and may change some traffic patterns or close streets. She did not say how many officers were stationed there, or how many would be added.

”We did have double the presence,” said Chief Inspector James Kelly. “I wouldn’t say we’re overwhelmed, but it’s a large area to cover. And we did have additional officers out there, including specialized tactical units.”

— Chris Palmer

The events in the area began just after 11 p.m., when two men dressed in black ran south on Fourth Street and onto Bainbridge Street — both of them firing handguns, according to surveillance video obtained by the Inquirer.

No one was struck by gunfire, but officers who responded to the scene said over the radio that they found more than 10 shell casings on the ground. Detectives responded and began gathering evidence, while other officers called for surrounding streets to be shut to traffic.

But before they could finish, according to Chief Inspector Frank Vanore, gunfire erupted again nearby.

Around 11:30 p.m., three men got into a fight on the 200 block of South Street. Video shows the encounter began as a fistfight, with one man exchanging words with two others, one of whom appears to draw a handgun.

People nearby began to panic. “They about to shoot!” a woman said in the video.

After a short brawl, a volley of gunshots rang out. Vanore said two of the three men in the fight fired at each other. One of them — the man who first drew a handgun — was killed, Vanore said. The other was hospitalized in critical condition.

But the shots in the packed nightlife district sparked chaos. Within seconds, police said, several other people began shooting into crowds gathered outside.

One shooter was a man on the 200 block of South Street, near an intersection with American Street. Police said he fired westbound on South Street. A responding officer, who has not been identified, returned fire, and Commissioner Danielle Outlaw said the officer likely struck him. The man dropped his gun and an extended magazine and ran away. He has not been apprehended.

At least two other guns were fired amid the mayhem, Vanore said, but police have not yet identified the suspected shooters.

Less than ten minutes after radio calls went out about individuals struck by gunfire, police officials requested that all rapid response units citywide converge on area of Fourth and South Streets.

Meanwhile, officers relayed a chaotic scene over the radio as throngs of weekend partiers struggled to flee.

“We’ve got multiple victims, we got hundreds of people,” one officer said.

Police believe nearly all of the victims were bystanders.

As police continued to gather evidence Sunday, Vanore said it was not clear if the Bainbridge Street shooting and the South Street incident were connected. Investigators were still seeking video and witnesses to determine any potential links.

— Chris Palmer, Max Marin, Ryan W. Briggs, and Aubrey Whelan

State Sen. Nikil Saval started getting a flood of text messages late Saturday night to alert him that there’d been a mass shooting on South Street in his district, just blocks away from his home. One was from his brother — who lives in Australia.

“That’s how widely this has traveled,” said Saval, whose district includes the scene of the shooting. “That in some sense speaks to the real terror of it.”

Saval, a first-term Democrat who supports stronger regulations on gun possession, said he feels “overwhelming dread and sadness” alongside a sense of rage, saying the gun industry and lobby has “built up a culture and an entire apparatus designed to permit actions of this kind.”

“I cannot believe that our society continues to tolerate this, or elected officials do,” Saval said. “There are ways to prevent it. It’s not a mystery.”

Saval — a regular South Street goer who has spent nights at the Theatre of Living Arts and mornings at the Headhouse Farmer’s Market — said the state legislature should dedicate more funding to violence prevention programming. He said he’s optimistic that Democrats can find ways to take action beyond gun control measures blocked by the Republican leadership.

But he said he’s committed to doing what he can statewide to unseat those who are “unwilling to move on an issue of this magnitude.”

“If they’re willing to let children get murdered in schools and people get murdered in supermarkets and people get wounded and terrorized in commercial corridors,” he said, “[they] should be removed from office and we should devote our energies to doing that.”

— Anna Orso

Mayor Jim Kenney will return to Philadelphia Monday instead of attending a conference in New York City.

Kenney did not appear at a news conference Sunday afternoon alongside police leadership, as he was in Reno to attend the U.S. Conference of Mayors. He issued a statement calling the shooting on South Street a “horrendous, brazen and despicable act of gun violence.”

The mayor had been scheduled to fly late Sunday night to a second conference, the Yale Mayors College event in New York City, and was to be there through Thursday. He will instead travel back to Philadelphia.

— Anna Orso

A resident adviser of a well-known Philadelphia boarding school was among those killed Saturday night after gunfire erupted on South Street.

Kris Minners, 22, a second-grade boys’ resident adviser at Girard College, died Saturday night shortly after being taken to Jefferson Hospital for his injuries, police said.

Minners was a member of the American Federation of Teachers, and in a statement Sunday, the union mourned his death.

“Our thoughts are with Mr. Minners’ family who woke up this morning missing someone at their breakfast table, his colleagues who will be without a friend, and with his students who will be without a mentor and a role model,” the union wrote.

“The loss of Kris reminds us that gun violence can and will touch everyone in our nation as long as our elected officials allow it to continue,” it wrote. “Mass shootings are a daily occurrence in only one wealthy, peacetime country on Earth. Petty disagreements turn deadly even for innocent bystanders. It doesn’t have to be this way.”

Gun violence generally and Saturday’s South Street shooting is “simply too much to bear,” and its daily toll “unconscionable,” Jerry Jordan, president of the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers, said in a statement. “The time for action on gun reform is long overdue. Shame on every single politician who sits on their hands while this catastrophic violence continues.”

In addition to the South Street shooting, at least nine additional shootings have happened this weekend, injuring eight and killing one.

“I mourn for the pregnant woman whose life was stolen from her, and think of the impact her death will have on her child whose life was saved. My thoughts — which are wholly insufficient — are with the victims, their families, and with every person forever impacted by the ongoing horror of gun violence.”

The union urged elected officials, Republicans in particular, to support gun safety measures.

— Ellie Rushing and Kristen A. Graham

Commissioner Danielle Outlaw on Sunday called Saturday’s mass shooting on South Street an “atrocity,” and police said at least five guns were fired in the incident as dozens of people tried to flee or navigate chaos that spanned several blocks.

“Yesterday was a dark day for Philadelphia,” Outlaw said during a news conference at Police Headquarters.

Officials said the investigation into the incident remained in its early stages, and several questions remained unclear. Police officials said no one had been taken into custody, and investigators were still seeking to piece together video, ballistics, and other evidence.

Outlaw said officers assigned to the 200 block of South Street heard gunshots on the 400 block around 11:31 p.m. When the officers arrived, Outlaw said, they saw several people with gunshot wounds and began giving first aid.

One of the officers then noticed a man on the 200 block, near an intersection with American Street, firing into a crowd, Outlaw said. The officer fired several shots, some of which Outlaw said likely hit the suspected shooter, but the man ran away.

Chief Inspector Frank Vanore said all of that likely came after a fight on the 200 block of South Street. Police believe that brawl, which began as a fistfight, may have been the incident that initiated much of the gunfire. As the fight progressed, two men pulled guns and shot each other, police said. One of the men died.

In the aftermath, Vanore said, another three guns were fired along South Street across several blocks. The officer also shot at the man near American Street.

In addition to that, Vanore said police had responded about a half hour earlier to another shooting nearby: An incident at Fourth and Bainbridge Streets in which shots were fired around 11 p.m., but no one was hit.

As officers were seeking to hold that crime scene, Vanore said, the shootings erupted on South Street.

Outlaw defended her department’s staffing levels in the area, saying officials had already added more patrol officers to the busy street with the weather warming up on a summer weekend. And she said they would continue to add officers to the area starting Sunday night. She did not provide specifics about how many officers were assigned to the area, or how many would be added.

— Chris Palmer and Max Marin

Attorney General Josh Shapiro, the Democratic nominee for Pennsylvania governor, said Sunday he’s “heartbroken for Philadelphia” and called for “more law enforcement” after a mass shooting in the city left 14 people shot.

“People should not have to walk the streets of this city or anywhere in our Commonwealth afraid of losing their lives to gun violence,” he said in a tweet. “We need to step up with more law enforcement and better laws.”

Shapiro has repeatedly called for the state to provide new incentives and resources to departments — like the Philadelphia Police Department — that have struggled over the past two years to recruit new officers and retain existing ones.

— Anna Orso

The Inquirer defines a mass shooting as one that occurs in public and kills three or more people. Definitions of mass shooting vary, with no single consensus. The FBI has classified mass murder as four or more deaths in a single incident; Congress has used the definition of three or more.

The Gun Violence Archive, a nonprofit that tracks mass shootings, defines them as any incident in which four or more people are injured or killed, a classification some national media outlets also use.

— Justine McDaniel

Two out of three people who died in the South Street chaos were bystanders who had no involvement with the initial altercation, police said.

Of the 11 surviving victims, police say one was related to the shooting incident. That person is in critical condition. The other 10 victims were bystanders.

— Max Marin

The Philadelphia city councilmember who represents the district where Saturday’s mass shooting took place said he’s calling for “drastic” measures in the aftermath of the shooting.

Councilmember Mark Squilla, who represents the first councilmanic district, said the city should “close the street at a specific time until we are able to efficiently protect the business[es], residents, and visitors.”

Saying the city is “in a state of emergency,” he called on Mayor Jim Kenney, District Attorney Larry Krasner, the police department, the courts and other agencies to collaborate with Council to “put a plan in place to stop the violence.”

“In Philadelphia, lawlessness has become a way of life,” Squilla said in a statement Sunday. “We are great at deflecting the problems onto someone else. Our own policies are allowing this illegal behavior to be accepted.”

He continued: “We need prevention programs and diversionary programs, but we also need the ability to have enforcement. When people commit these crimes, they need to be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”

— Anna Orso

At first, he didn’t even realize he’d been shot.

William “Rusty” Crowell, 69, arrived at Dobbs on South around 11 p.m. to see a friend perform a music set. South Street was packed with people, he said, so much so it was hard to walk through to reach the venue, located at Third and South Streets.

“It was like a big party,” said Crowell, a guitarist and host on WPPM.

After the music set ended, Crowell stepped outside to wait for his friend to come out. The crowds had grown, he said, and there was a group of about 40 people walking west on South Street, chanting something he couldn’t understand. He said he heard what sounded like somebody blowing a whistle, then all of a sudden, gunfire.

Someone was shooting south towards Dobbs, he said. People crouched on the ground and ran in every direction as numerous shots were fired. Crowell was standing frozen, shocked and confused but what was going on, he said.

“I felt this slight pain in the back of my knee, and I look down and the blood is just running down my leg,” said Crowell, of Pennsport.

He had been shot — a graze wound that left an about 1-inch-long bullet-shaped crater in the back of his left knee.

Dobbs’ bouncer yelled for everyone to get inside, and he went in to try and clean up his wound. Then, he said, he noticed a man was laying on the ground outside, bleeding heavily.

The man, who Crowell said looked to be in his 30s, had been shot in the shoulder and was unresponsive. As a registered nurse, Crowell asked if there was anything he could do to help. Someone else was applying pressure to the wound, and within a minute, Philadelphia police arrived and scooped the unconscious man into their cruiser to drive him to the hospital.

“He [had been] standing right next to me,” Crowell said of the victim.

Crowell didn’t see the shooter, he said, because the crowds were too thick.

He declined to go to the hospital, then was taken to a South Philadelphia police station, where he was eventually interviewed by detectives. He made it home around 3:30 a.m.

“I feel alright but I feel like I am kind of in shock, in such disbelief this has happened to me,” he said Sunday.

He returned to the South Street area Sunday afternoon to help process what happened — and search the wall at Dobbs to try and find the bullet that grazed him.

» READ MORE: 69-year-old man shot on South Street recalls how the night went from party to mayhem

— Ellie Rushing

Ryan Kore, 32, who lives near the scene of the shooting, said there were signs of trouble on the crowded street of revelers even before shots were fired.

At about 9 p.m while he was in the area of South Street between Second and Third Streets, he said he saw two men brandish firearms they had tucked in the waists of the pants, and a crowd of onlookers, seeing the same, ran from the scene.

Kore, a customer service employee for a local animal hospital, said he ran into the nearby Fresh2Go for safety. “No shots (were) fired at that point, but it definitely set the tone for the night.” Around the same time, he said, he saw a man and woman fighting on South Street, with the man punching the woman.

He said some officers were also in the Fresh2Go, but they either were not aware of the mayhem outside or did not react.

Kore noted that Memorial Day weekend had been rowdy, too.

“I never felt unsafe in the neighborhood. I took the craziness with a grain of salt. I know people go to South Street to get drunk. But it’s anarchy now,” Kore said. “And the police are afraid to do anything. I don’t blame them. They’re outnumbered.”

On Saturday, the block was in “chaos” before the shooting, he said.

“Something’s got to give at some point,” he added. “Summer’s just getting started.”

— Rita Giordano

State Rep. Mary Isaacson walked down South Street on Saturday evening with her 20-year-old daughter, who was home for the weekend and meeting up with friends.

She woke up Sunday morning to learn that less than six hours later, in the same stretch of South Street, 14 people had been shot in a mass shooting that left three dead. She felt grateful her daughter was safe.

“But my heart bleeds for those that aren’t,” she said. “I’m a mother of two kids, 18 and 20, who are coming of age in a society where we are having such disregard for human life. We should not live with this.”

Isaacson, whose district includes the scene of the shooting, said she’s frustrated that while she’s joined fellow Democrats in recent weeks to push for stronger gun control laws, the Republican-controlled chamber has thus far refused to take up their legislation.

She said although the shooting wasn’t committed with an assault rifle, she cited early reports suggesting that the shooter may have used an extended magazine, saying such alterations turn handguns into “a weapon of mass destruction.”

“How many babies and how many people and how many communities are going to be wrecked before we start having a collective moment where we reflect on the human being that matters?” she said. “We need to come together and try to find a way to change the thought process that it’s OK to walk around with these guns.”

— Anna Orso

On Saturday night, shooters opened fire at Second and South Streets. Three people were killed and 11 wounded as a popular strip of Philly nightlife became a scene of pandemonium and horror.

The impact of this tragedy is likely to travel far beyond the scene of the mass shooting.

Gun violence reverberates throughout a community, inflicting harm on mental health. After a shooting in their neighborhood, Philadelphia kids and teens were more likely to go to the emergency department with mental health issues as their chief complaint, a study found. And after school shootings, students within 10 to 15 miles were more likely to get an antidepressant prescription.

Adults aren’t immune, either. In the days following the 2019 mass shootings in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio, the American Psychological Association found that 79% of adults experience stress as a result of the possibility of a mass shooting and 33% say the fear prevents them from going to certain places.

“We are all being impacted and we’re all on edge. We are vicariously traumatized,” says Jaynay C. Johnson, a therapist and owner of a practice that is focused on supporting teens with suicidal ideations and depression. “We see the images, we hear the stories, and although it may not have happened directly to us, we are still traumatized by the fact that it is happening around us.”

For anyone struggling, there are resources available.

» READ MORE: In the aftermath of the mass shooting on South Street, here is where to find mental health support

—Abraham Gutman

The head of the business district where Saturday’s mass shooting took place said that police typically have a heavy, visible presence in the area on summertime weekends, but that the “sickening” occurrence is the type of event that’s challenging to plan for.

“We’re aware of the summer experience and we have been planning and working with the Police Department to be prepared for that,” said Michael Harris, executive director of the South Street Headhouse Business District. “But some incident where a person or persons bring guns and weapons to a crowded entertainment district and nightlife district? It’s sort of out of your ability to plan for that.”

Harris, the longtime cheerleader of South Street who serves as a liaison between 400 business owners and elected officials, said the shooting is yet another setback for small businesses that weathered the pandemic and economic downturn.

After Saturday’s shooting, he said, “it’s kind of an uphill battle to get people to feel safe.”

Harris said he is coordinating with police and elected officials on expanded security measures. And he’s preparing for a meeting planned for Tuesday with officials from urban entertainment destinations across the country.

The topic: gun violence in nightlife districts.

“Now,” he said, “I can speak from an immediate experience.”

— Anna Orso

Cell phone footage circulating online, and corroborated by The Inquirer, shows a fistfight that led to gunfire on South Street on Saturday night.

In one video, two men appear to exchange words with a third man in front of Rita’s Water Ice between Second and Third Streets. The two men then slowly descend on the third — one of them drawing what appears to be a handgun as they advance. A fistfight ensues.

People standing nearby begin to panic when they observe the drawn handgun. “They about to shoot!” a woman said.

The men trade blows and wrestle with each other for less than 15 seconds, moving into the middle of South Street, when a volley of gunshots rings out, at which point the video cuts away. The footage conforms with another video of the events viewed by The Inquirer.

More than two dozen gunshots ring out in quick succession.

A trail of blood snaked along the sidewalk outside Rita’s after the shooting. On Sunday morning, the police chalk outlines for more than a dozen shell casings were still visible on the nearby sidewalks.

In a separate video posted online, which occurs sometime after the shooting ended, a group of women is seen huddled above a bleeding woman who lies in the southside crosswalk of Third and South — the same spot a nearby bar owner told The Inquirer he saw a woman collapse last night.

Blood had stained the white striping of the same crosswalk when a reporter arrived on scene around 1 a.m.

— Max Marin and Aubrey Whelan

The mass shooting on South Street that killed three people and injured 11 more on Saturday night is “about as bad as it gets,” said Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner.

“The city is reeling,” he told The Inquirer while attending Sunday’s Pride March near Fifth and Arch Streets. Krasner added that the shooting came at the conclusion of what had been a positive day for the city, which had hosted the opening day of the Roots Picnic.

On Twitter, Krasner issued a statement encouraging Pennsylvania legislators to boycott lobbyists and donations associated with the National Rifle Association.

“The terrible crimes last night on South Street tell our Pennsylvania legislators it’s time for real action,” Krasner tweeted. “Boycott NRA lobbyists, boycott NRA donations, and bring real common sense gun regulation to Pennsylvania. Now.

— David Gambacorta and Nick Vadala

A business owner who asked to stay anonymous said he and his staff were shaken by the shooting. One employee had watched police officers carry a woman’s limp body into a patrol car and take her to the hospital.

“You can tell when it’s getting ready to boil over — there’s lots of activity in the street, shoutings, teenagers running back and forth,” he said. “That’s not what happened last night — it was two guys having an argument.”

But, the owner said, he thinks crowd control on South Street needs to improve, saying police should enforce curfews for teenagers and music-volume ordinances and crack down on motorcycles and ATVs driving the wrong way up the street.

“You get the crowd riled up and this is what ends up happening. People don’t have any regard for life anymore,” he said. “We can’t continue doing business if people don’t want to come down here or staff doesn’t want to work down here.”

— Aubrey Whelan

— Inquirer Staff Photographers

Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney said the investigation into the mass shooting on South Street on Saturday night is complex and ongoing, calling the gunfire that struck 14 people “beyond devastating.”

“Once again, we see lives senselessly lost and those injured in yet another horrendous, brazen and despicable act of gun violence,” he said in a statement, adding: “I know this shooting has shaken many people in our community.”

The mayor issued the statement Sunday morning from Reno, where he traveled this week for the U.S. Conference of Mayors. He was scheduled to travel late Sunday night to New York City for the Yale Mayors College conference, but will instead return to Philadelphia.

Kenney vowed to “work relentlessly to reduce violence and create safer communities” and reiterated that he would advocate for stronger laws regulating gun possession.

“We cannot accept continued violence as a way of life in our country,” he said. “Until we address the availability and ease of access to firearms, we will always be fighting an uphill battle.”

He urged anyone with information to call police at 215-686-TIPS.

— Anna Orso

On Sunday morning, the area of South Street where three people were killed and 11 others were injured the night before was mostly desolate.

Several people walked around the area before many stores and restaurants opened for business.

An employee at a smoke shop near the scene who lives around the corner heard the shots last night, and visited the store to make sure it was not hit by gunfire. The man, who did not wanted to be identified, said that there is not a substantial presence on South Street when it is shut down to traffic on weekends.

The Headhouse Farmers Market, which runs on Sundays at Second and Lombard Streets, was still opening despite the shooting on Saturday.

— Aubrey Whelan and Nick Vadala

Police have identified the three people killed in a mass shooting Saturday night in Philadelphia.

The victims who died were Kristopher Minners, 22; Alexis Quinn, 24; and Gregory “Japan” Jackson, 34.

Eleven people were wounded in the shooting, with the victims’ ages ranging from 17 to 69.

Police said four of the injured were 17. The others included two 18-year-olds, two 20-year-olds, a 23-year-old, and a 43- and 69-year-old.

— Ellie Rushing

A man who gave his name as Ali said he was working the grill at a deli on the corner of Third and South Streets when he heard shots ring out outside.

“It was just shooting, and people running — people were going crazy,” he said. “I heard many gunshots. Too many.”

Ali said deli employees let several people shelter inside the store but had to lock the doors for safety as they realized the extent of the pandemonium on the street. “If we left the door open, it was going to be crazy,” he said.

Ali was back at the grill on Sunday morning, cooking breakfast sandwiches as customers talked in shocked tones about the night before. “I’m fine, thank god,” he said.

— Aubrey Whelan

Eric Rosso had just finished enjoying a heavy metal concert at the Theater of the Living Arts, and was walking down South Street on his way home, when bursts of gunshots erupted.

It was around 11:30 p.m., and there were large crowds of people in the street, some on ATVs and dirt bikes, mingling between bars and leaving the concert. Then suddenly, Rosso said, “you just hear pop, pop, pop.”

“It was a shock at first, like is that fireworks or gunshots?” said Rosso, 34.

Then about four more gunshots erupted again, he said. He looked up the block, then down at the ground, where he saw bullets ricocheting off the street, creating sparks as they struck the pavement, he said.

Then everyone started running, he said.

“It was like watching a scene from afar as it was happening in slow motion,” he said. “I was realizing, this is a mass shooting event, that’s what this sounds like.”

As he sprinted down the block, Rosso, who works as an organizer for Philadelphia’s Working Families Party alongside Councilmember Kendra Brooks, said he recalled the nagging feeling that had long haunted the back of his mind: That as an American, it was inevitable he’d one day be in this position, fleeing a shooting.

— Ellie Rushing

Police have yet to identify the shooters, but confirm there was more than one person shooting into the crowd. Their motive is not known.

An officer fired at one of the shooters, who was still firing a gun into the crowd, said Pace. The shooter dropped the weapon, which Pace said had an extended magazine.

While a person believed to be a suspect was shot in the forearm, it was not clear if that person was shot by the officer.

Police recovered two semi-automatic handguns from the shooting scene and had multiple blocks of South Street shut down well past midnight.

» READ MORE: What we know and don’t know about the South Street mass shooting that killed 3, injured at least 11

—Diane Mastrull

Three people were killed and 11 others wounded in a mass shooting late Saturday night on South Street amid chaos that erupted on legendary blocks that have long been among the region’s most popular gathering places.

The mayhem appeared to stretch for several blocks, where smashed car windows and knocked-over trash cans were evident.

A police commander said officers first heard numerous gunshots near Second and South Streets and saw multiple shooters.

An officer fired at one of the shooters, who was still firing a gun into the crowd, said Inspector D.F. Pace. The shooter dropped the weapon, which Pace said had an extended magazine.

The investigation continues, with authorities expected to retrieve surveillance footage Sunday from nearby businesses that were closed at the time of the shooting.

» READ MORE: ‘I didn’t think it was going to stop’: 3 dead, 11 wounded in South Street mass shooting

—Anthony R. Wood, Diane Mastrull