Police identified the 19-year-old man who was fatally shot at a West Philly block party
Kevin July, 19, was fatally shot early Saturday on the 500 block of North Creighton Street, police said. Another eight people were wounded in the incident at a late-night outdoor party.
Philadelphia Police on Monday identified the man who was fatally shot at what officials are now calling an unpermitted block party over the weekend as 19-year-old Kevin July, saying he was one of nine people shot in the violent episode in West Philadelphia’s Mill Creek section. The eight other victims survived, police said.
Still, authorities have released few other new details about the crime as they continue to investigate, saying they were not yet sure of a motive, nor were they even certain how many people opened fire during the incident.
July’s relatives declined to comment when contacted by phone Monday.
The shooting happened on the 500 block of North Creighton Street around 1:30 a.m. Saturday, police said, when shooters fired at least 60 shots into a crowd of dozens of people who had gathered for a party or barbecue. The celebration took place at end of the rowhouse-lined street that dead ends in between Wyalusing and Westminster Avenues.
Keisha McCarty-Skelton, a Streets Department spokesperson, said organizers had not applied for or received a city permit for the event, a relatively involved process that requires buy-in from the majority of neighbors and must be approved by the local police district. (Permitted block parties are also only allowed to run until 8:30 p.m. — well before gunfire erupted on Creighton Street.)
Deputy Commissioner Frank Vanore said that investigators had recovered at least three different types of fired cartridge casings at the scene, but that they were not yet sure how many shooters there were or why shots rang out in the first place.
One resident of the block, who declined to give her name for fear of retribution, said that at least 100 people had gathered to celebrate a birthday, and that the mood had been festive in the hours before the gunfire.
Councilmember Jamie Gauthier, who represents the area, said in an interview that she’d spoken to the captain of the 16th Police District and been told that the event was a private gathering that had attracted guests from elsewhere, and that some people who live on the block “didn’t even know people who engaged in the dispute.”
Gauthier said she believes that permitted block parties — which happen earlier in the day and with the consent of city authorities — are generally distinct from such large and unauthorized gatherings, and that sanctioned block parties are an effective way to build community and ensure neighbors look out for one another.
She also said Mill Creek, the neighborhood in which the shooting occurred, is burdened by “massive blight and disinvestment,” including city-owned properties that have grown dilapidated. And she said the city should focus on investing in housing, clearing vacant lots, and improving the nearby recreation center as ways to improve conditions that can lead to violence.
“The chronic disinvestment experienced in neighborhoods like West Mill Creek lends to the thought that nobody cares here, anything goes here,” she said.