Philly’s gun violence keeps surging with a triple shooting and the killing of a would-be robber at a chicken takeout

The surge of gun violence that has plagued Philadelphia throughout the year and the holiday weekend didn’t ease on Monday, as two men and a 16-year-old boy were shot and wounded in Kensington.

Police offered no immediate motive and made no arrests in the triple shooting Monday morning on the 3100 block of Kensington Avenue; all three victims were listed in stable condition after being taken to Temple University Hospital.

But they added to what has been a staggering toll without an end in sight. By midday, there had been 2,059 shooting victims in Philadelphia so far this year. That’s already a 53% increase from the same span last year and almost double the 1,110 shootings for the same period in 2015.

This past weekend was especially violent with 24 people shot, two fatally.

One person killed was a 53-year-old man armed with a gun who was in the midst of robbing the Wingstop chicken takeout restaurant on the 2100 block of Cottman Avenue around 10:15 p.m. Sunday when a customer entered, police said. The robber then pointed his gun at the 27-year-old customer, who drew his own weapon and shot the robber in his neck, police said.

The suspect was pronounced dead at the scene, police said. Both weapons were recovered. It had not been determined by Monday evening whether the customer, who had a valid permit to carry a gun, will face charges, police said.

Also Sunday, a 35-year-old man died after being shot twice around 7:30 a.m. along the 1300 block of West Seltzer Street in North Philadelphia, police said. He was taken to Temple University Hospital and pronounced dead.

That brought the number of homicide victims in the city to 452 as of Sunday, a 39% increase from the same period last year, according to police statistics.

But like in the other shootings, police did not report any arrests.

Staff reporter Dylan Purcell contributed to this article.