Kensington and Independence Mall-area shootings leave two dead, three wounded

A 39-year-old man was shot to death and two others were critically wounded late Saturday afternoon in a triple shooting in Kensington, police said.

Several hours later, police said, a double shooting occurred in the Independence Mall area, leaving one man dead and another wounded.

The first shooting occurred just before 5 p.m. in the 700 block of East Madison Street, not far from the intersection of Kensington and Allegheny Avenues, in an area that has been more burdened by gun violence than any other in the city.

Police said the man fatally wounded was shot five times. He was pronounced dead at Temple University Hospital.

They said that two males were taken to Temple, where they were reported to be in critical condition. Their ages were unavailable.

Police did not identify the victims and said that no arrests had been made, nor weapons recovered at the scene, which was littered with shell casings Saturday night.

Earlier this month, a 4-year-old girl and a 24-year-old man standing in the front doorway of their Kensington home were shot and wounded.

A 2021 analysis by The Inquirer documented that nearly 300 people had been shot within a five-minute walk of the K&A since Jan. 1, 2015.

That was a rate per square mile 11 times greater than that of the city as a whole.

In the double-shooting incident later Saturday, police said that a 29-year-old man was shot twice in the 100 block of Independence Mall East shortly after 9 p.m. and was pronounced dead at Jefferson University Hospital about 20 minutes later.

The other victim drove himself to Pennsylvania Hospital for treatment of a gunshot wound to the arm.

The victims were not identified, and police reported no arrests.