1 killed, 4 wounded in 4 shootings before dawn in Philadelphia
One of the victims was a woman who told police she was caught in a gun battle between a pair of shooters in North Philadelphia.
Four shootings between midnight and dawn Monday in Philadelphia left a man dead and four other people wounded, following a violent weekend in which seven people were shot at an Overbrook playground.
Among the victims was a 46-year-old woman who was critically wounded in North Philadelphia when she apparently got caught in a shootout, police said.
The fatal shooting occurred about 4:40 a.m. on the 3300 block of North Lee Street in Kensington.
Police said a witness called 911 to report that two men had been shot following an argument over an auto accident, and that two other men drove away in a silver or gray sedan.
A 28-year-old man, later identified as Edilson Saldivar of St. Petersburg, Fla., was shot in the stomach and died in the street, police said. A 26-year-old man, who had been shot in his upper left arm, ran around the corner to East Ontario Street before being taken to Temple University Hospital, where he was in stable condition, police said Tuesday.
Domielis Cruz told NBC10 that the men were her brothers and they came to her aid after her car was hit by another vehicle with two men inside.
During the confrontation, one of the men from the striking vehicle said, “Get my burner, get my gun, get my gun, I’m going to kill them,” before opening fire, Cruz said.
The three other shootings occurred in a time span of about an hour.
First, about 12:30 a.m., a woman was shot in her shoulder and back while walking on the 1900 block of North Croskey Street in North Philadelphia.
“She heard an argument, then she heard the gunshots, and then she realized she was shot twice in her back,” Chief Inspector Scott Small told reporters at the scene. “She believes she was not the intended target. She believes she was caught in the crossfire of two individuals firing gunshots.”
The woman ran to her nearby home and collapsed in a plastic chair in her living room, police said. She was taken to Temple University Hospital, where she was reported to be in stable condition.
Police recovered shell casings from two separate handguns and found some cars with bullet holes in them on the street.
Then, in an unusual case, a 28-year-old man who told police he had been shot in the face and and right arm during a robbery walked into a stranger’s house in the Logan section and awakened a woman who was sleeping, asking for help.
The shooting occurred about 1 a.m. in a rear driveway on the 1700 block of Belfield Avenue.
Small said the woman, though startled by the appearance of the bleeding man in her bedroom, dialed 911.
“She doesn’t know this male, she stated to police that she never saw him before, never saw him in the neighborhood, but for some reason he walked into her home through the back door after being shot,” Small told reporters at the scene.
The victim was reported in critical but stable condition at Albert Einstein Medical Center.
About 1:25 a.m., a 23-year-old man was shot in the stomach on the 5200 block of Irving Street, police said.
Officers responding to a call for a shooting did not find a victim but were soon informed that a man who had been shot was being taken to Mercy Hospital.
Police intercepted the car at the Mercy emergency room and took the victim to Penn Presbyterian Medical Center, police said. The man was taken into surgery and was listed in critical condition.
Police said investigators learned the man had been shot by someone in a black car.
No arrests were reported in any of the overnight shootings.