Students shot in Northeast are still hospitalized. One is a member of the school’s chess team.

Their backpacks bounced up and down on their shoulders as they ran from the bullets.

Shot, after shot, after shot — more than 30 in all — whizzed through the crowd of Northeast High School students who were on the corner of Rising Sun and Cottman Avenues and waiting to catch the bus home from school on Wednesday afternoon. As the sound of gunfire erupted, some kids sprinted down the street. Others collapsed to the ground.

Within a matter of five seconds, eight students, ages 15 to 17, were struck by bullets, according to police and video from the scene. Responding officers found the teens lying on the wet sidewalk and in the road, blood soaking through their school uniforms, young friends and bystanders trying to hold pressure to their wounds, according to video taken by witnesses.

This was the second time this week that such a scene had unfolded near a Philadelphia school — on Monday, as students from Imhotep Institute Charter High School stepped onto a SEPTA bus, two people unleashed at least 40 shots into the crowd. Dayemen Taylor, 17, was killed, and two of his classmates were injured. Two women, ages 50 and 71, who were sitting on the bus were also struck by gunfire.

Police are looking into whether the shooting Wednesday, which happened less than a mile from Northeast High, could be related to the violence outside Imhotep, but there’s no evidence suggesting a connection at this time, said Deputy Police Commissioner Frank Vanore.

For now, police are focused on recovering more evidence and chasing down tips, Vanore said. Investigators believe the three shooters were likely juveniles, he said, which makes it all the more concerning that they each had a handgun.

And police on Thursday were just beginning to recover more surveillance video and process the blue Hyundai Sonata they believe was used as the getaway car. Officers found the car abandoned on a dark block in Olney late Wednesday. The car had been reported stolen last weekend, Vanore said, and during the shooting, had a temporary paper tag placed over the license plate — a common practice among thieves trying to conceal their whereabouts.

Meanwhile, the families of the victims were struggling to make sense of the previous 24 hours — how they could be swept up in a gun violence crisis that has become the leading cause of death for children in America.

» READ MORE: These are the 24 children lost to Philadelphia’s gun violence in 2023

Raquel Lopez prayed all night and into Thursday morning for what she said happened earlier in the day: Her 16-year-old son, Brandon, who was shot multiple times Wednesday, woke up and started talking.

The teen was at the corner, an intersection called “Five Points” where many kids from Northeast High School catch SEPTA buses home, waiting for his second bus when the shots rang out, his mother said. He was shot throughout his body, she said — including once in the chest and hand.

On Thursday morning, Lopez said, her son started speaking for the first time since he was rushed to Einstein University Hospital. He may need surgery on his hand, she said, and physical therapy in the months after, but for now, her family is focusing on the positive: Her son is eating, his memory and warm personality are intact, and he is alive.

“He is doing well,” his mother said. “He remembers it all.”

“I am so happy for the people who are around us in this moment,” she said. “This is nothing compared to how he could be.”

Brandon Lopez is a member of Northeast High’s chess team, and was aiming to become a team leader this year, his mother said. After school most days, she said, he spends his time practicing taekwondo — he is a black belt — and coaching younger children in the sport.

“For the first time in my life, I understand that this is not happening to the bad kids in the street — it is happening to everybody,” Lopez said.

Other families are struggling to make sense of what unfolded in an area where hundreds of students come and go each day.

Police said one 16-year-old boy, who was shot nine times, remains hospitalized in critical condition.

And the sister of a 15-year-old shot in the back said her brother’s road ahead remained unclear. The sister, who asked not to be identified for privacy reasons, said that a bullet remained lodged in her brother’s spine, and that he had lost feeling in some of the toes of his left foot.

Surgery to dislodge the bullet runs the risk of leaving him paralyzed, she said, and doctors are weighing how to move forward. He’s been able to speak little, she said, because he is on medication to help with the pain.

”He’s not doing well,” she said before getting off the phone to speak with his medical team.

The father of another 15-year-old shot in the back said his son is OK and recovering. And the family of a 16-year-old boy who was shot in the upper back said that he had just returned home, and that they are rallying around him to keep his spirits up.

The teen’s older brother, who declined to give his name, citing privacy concerns, said the family is worried, but trying to stay optimistic: “We are just trying to get through it.”