Two 14-year-old boys shot next to ice rink and Christmas Village at City Hall, police said
One of the teens was shot in the face after a fight broke out and someone pulled out a gun, police said. The area was busy with holiday shoppers as shots rang out just after 4:30 p.m.
Holiday cheer turned to screams outside of Philadelphia’s Christmas Village at City Hall on Friday when police said an argument among teens erupted in gunfire, leaving two 14-year-olds wounded, one of them fighting for his life.
Shortly after 4:30 p.m., a group of teens started fighting in Dilworth Park, on the west side of City Hall, police said. Suddenly, one of them — standing next to the Rothman Orthopedics Ice Rink and the Christmas Village booths — pulled a gun and started shooting.
People ice skating and shopping for holiday gifts screamed, dropped to the ground, and sprinted in all directions, witnesses said. Philadelphia police assigned to the area heard four to five shots and sprinted toward the shooting scene, where they found two boys wounded on the ground.
One had been shot in the face, police said. Officers carried the teen to their cruisers and rushed him to Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, where he remained in critical condition Friday night, police said.
The second teen had been shot in the leg and was stable at Jefferson, police said.
Police apprehended a boy around the same age as the victims at 17th and Ludlow Streets and are continuing to investigate to see if he was the shooter, police said.
Canine units and lights were brought to the scene as investigators searched the area for additional evidence. A tangle of yellow caution tape was a shocking contrast to the otherwise festive scene of Christmas lights.
The ice rink and Christmas Village area was filled with visitors and shoppers when the gunfire erupted. Ashley Waddy, 21, said she was inside of a tent looking at body scrubs when she heard the shots. She joined a crowd that ran to safety on South Broad Street. Some teens were crying, she said.
Others fled down into the City Hall SEPTA station. Paige Rockway, 19, and her friends had just gotten off the subway and were heading upstairs when crowds shouted at them to turn around.
“‘Don’t go up! Somebody is shooting!’” Rockway said people yelled. She and her peers, all students at Temple University, hopped onto a westbound train in a panic, eager to get out of the area. They returned to City Hall once they realized things had calmed down.
Lily Lough, who operates a jewelry tent within 20 feet of the shooting, said she dropped beneath her table when she heard the shots. Her husband saw officers carrying away the injured boys.
She stayed under her table for nearly 10 minutes before emerging and finding that the booth she has run for eight years was now part of a crime scene.
“I’m still in shock,” she said, nearly shaking. “It was the scariest moment in my life.”
She said she would close her tent for the night Friday, but would try to reopen on Saturday.
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Juveniles continue to make up a growing portion of Philadelphia’s shooting victims. So far this year, 126 people under the age of 18 have been shot in the city, data shows. That means children have made up 12.5% of all shooting victims this year — a nearly three-point jump over last year, and nearly double the proportion recorded in 2015.
Advocates and law enforcement officials have said that it is in part because teens have easier access to guns. Deputy Police Commissioner Frank Vanore said on Friday it was “inexcusable” that a fight among 14-year-olds led to a shooting.
Around 6 p.m., the Center City District said Dilworth Park, including the ice rink and snack bar, would close for the rest of the night.
The rest of the Christmas Village vendors not blocked off by the police tape, in LOVE Park and on the other sides of City Hall, remained open. Shoppers mingled in and out of booths for T-shirts and ornaments, and sipped mugs of mulled wine. Families posed for photos in front of the sparkling Christmas tree.
Meanwhile, helicopters pulsed in the sky above, and beneath the lights of City Hall, crime scene investigators photographed the remnants of a child’s blood.
Staff writer John Duchneskie contributed to this article.