3 people dead, 6 injured after mass shooting erupted at a party in West Philly

Three people were killed and six more were injured after a mass shooting broke out at a party in West Philadelphia early Sunday morning.

More than 100 people were attending a cookout on the 1200 block of North Alden Street in the Carroll Park neighborhood when, law enforcement sources said, a shootout stemming from an argument erupted just after 2 a.m. Upon arriving, police said, officers found multiple people suffering from gunshot wounds.

A 33-year-old man — who Chief Inspector D.F. Pace told reporters was “shot at very close range” and likely targeted — was pronounced dead at the scene. A 23-year-old man with multiple gunshot wounds died shortly after being taken to Penn Presbyterian Medical Center. The third victim was 29 years old, said police, and was also pronounced dead at Penn Presbyterian after being shot in the abdomen.

Names of the victims have not been released.

Two semiautomatic handguns were recovered from two of the victims. Another semiautomatic handgun was turned over to investigators by a witness, according to sources. Crime scene investigators recovered 36 spent shell casings fired from at least three weapons.

Police said two 28-year-old men are in stable condition at Penn Presbyterian, one with a gunshot wound to the thigh, the other to a foot. Another 28-year-old man is in stable condition at Lankenau Hospital with several gunshot wounds.

A 30-year-old man, a brother of one of the men killed, was also in stable condition at Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania with gunshot wounds to the thighs, said police. Another man, 27, is being treated for a graze wound to the head and a gunshot to the leg at Penn Presbyterian.

One woman, 26, was also shot and is being treated at Penn Presbyterian, said police.

Officers are looking to review surveillance footage of the incident. Police confirmed a weapon was recovered at the scene of the cookout, but no arrests had been made and no suspects were in custody by early Sunday evening.

In a brief statement posted on X, formerly Twitter, just after 10 p.m. Sunday, Mayor Cherelle L. Parker said: “Every shooting and homicide in Philadelphia is painful to me, and my administration will not rest until every resident, in every neighborhood, feels safe in their community.” She said she would have more to say at a news conference scheduled for 11 a.m. Monday at the shooting scene, where she will be joined by Police Commissioner Kevin Bethel and other city officials.

Anyone with information regarding the shooting should contact the police at 215-686-8477.

Police familiar with the area told The Inquirer that violence is less common in Carroll Park, a stretch of West Philadelphia that shares its name with a public park on Girard Avenue between 58th and 59th Streets, about two blocks from the shooting scene. Compared to other sections of the city, the neighborhood is not known as a shooting hot spot, they said.

Carroll Park has recorded 24 shooting victims since the start of 2024, according to a dashboard kept by the Office of the City Controller.

One of those happened just three blocks from where Sunday’s shooting occurred. In June, a 17-year-old was shot multiple times on the 1500 block of North Alden Street.

“It’s normally quiet,” said Tyreek Marshall, who was sweeping up litter outside the Masjid Ibn Taymiyyahcommunity center down the street from the shooting Sunday afternoon. “Just kids out playing, and people sitting out on the stairs. There’s never anything going on like that.”

The area is also home to a robust civic association. The Friends of Carroll Park steward the green space and playground, regularly hosting community events and park cleanups. Central to their message: reporting criminal activity.

“We need all the help and all the eyes we can get! It’s our park to protect!” reads a message posted to their Facebook page a day before the shooting.

This is the third multiple shooting at a large outdoor gathering this year in Philadelphia.

The most recent one before Sunday’s happened on July 4 in Kingsessing, when a gunman opened fire at a “pop-up” party, killing 19-year-old Maurice Quann. Police said his party might have gotten caught in the middle of a longstanding gang feud. Eight other people were also shot — all between the ages of 14 and 24 — and an arrest has yet to be made.

Just under three weeks before that, 17-year-old Isya Stanley was shot and killed in Fairmount Park when gunfire rang out at a party she was attending with her boyfriend and about 100 other juveniles. Four other teens were also injured.

There have been 142 homicides to date in 2024, according to data kept by the Philadelphia Police Department, down 39% from this time last year. Before Sunday morning’s shooting, there were 600 gun violence victims in 2024. Of those, 129 died.

Sunday’s mass shooting comes less than a week before a preplanned rally against gun violence. Helmed by organizers with the Crime Survivors for Safety and Justice Network, gun violence survivors and reform advocates will gather at Kingsessing’s Salt & Light Church — just under three miles from Sunday’s deadly block party — to advocate for the creation of a trauma recovery center in Philly.

Staff writers Chris Palmer and Anna Orso contributed to this article.