Five people killed, two children injured in Kingsessing mass shooting; suspect in custody

Five people were killed and two children — ages 2 and 13 — were injured Monday night in a mass shooting in the Kingsessing section of Southwest Philadelphia. A suspect is in custody, police said.

Police responded shortly before 8:30 p.m. to gunfire in the area of South 56th Street and Chester Avenue, and about 10 minutes later, with police following the suspect as gunfire continued to ring out, a 40-year-old man was confronted several blocks away in an alleyway on the 1600 block of South Frazier Street, Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw said at a news conference at the scene.

Police officers issued verbal commands, and then took him into custody without further incident, Outlaw said.

Outlaw initially said the people killed were ages 59, 22, and 20, and one deceased victim was unidentified but believed to be between 16 and 21, Outlaw said. A fifth person was found several hours later in the living room of his home on 56th Street, which Chief Inspector Scott Small told reporters on the scene was related to the earlier shooting.

» READ MORE: Police identify suspect in Kingsessing shooting where five men died and two children were injured

The two children were reported to be in stable condition, Outlaw said. All the victims were male.

Police initially reported a total of eight shooting victims.

A second person believed to have returned gunfire at the primary shooter also was taken into custody, and a gun from that individual was taken into evidence, Outlaw said.

The suspect allegedly was armed with an “AR-style” rifle and a handgun, Outlaw said. He also was wearing a ballistic vest, and was carrying additional magazines of ammunition and a police scanner.

The shooting scene encompassed an area of several blocks, and included approximately 50 spent shell casings, Outlaw said. Several vehicles were struck by bullets.

Within minutes, police had found and transported several victims to Penn Presbyterian Medical Center. The remaining victims arrived by private vehicle to the same hospital.

» READ MORE: The morning after a mass shooting in Kingsessing, the streets are quiet: ‘People scared, people on edge’

No officers discharged their firearms during the arrest, police said.

Outlaw said the motive for the shooting remained under investigation.

Mayor Jim Kenney posted a statement on Twitter shortly before 10:40 p.m.

“Horrified by the reports of a shooting in Southwest Philadelphia. My heart is with the loved ones and families of everyone involved, and I send my prayers to the victims,” the mayor said.

“My sincere thanks to @PhillyPolice for their brave response and successful apprehension of a suspect. This devasting [sic] violence must stop. If you have any information about this crime or any other, please report it to PPD by calling or texting 215-686-TIPS,” Kenney said.

At least six shell casings were visible on the street on the 1600 block of South 56th Street, not far from where one of the juvenile victims was located.

Emma Hilton, 70, sipped on a drink and watched from her porch as police marked shell casings and flashed lights on bullet holes in a nearby box truck. In her 11 years living on that block in Kingsessing, she’d heard gunfire. But it’s getting more dangerous, she said.

”It’s getting worse. My kids getting ready to take me up out of here,” she said.

With the mass shooting happening so close to her doorstep, she said she was ready to move down South, where her children had already tried to convince her to move.

”It’s never been on this block. ... It’s gotten worse around here. It’s really gotten worse. It’s time to go,” she said.

As of late Sunday, the city had recorded 212 homicides so far this year, down 19% from the same period in 2022.