11 shootings, 1 homicide mark New Year’s Day in Philadelphia

Philadelphians bid good riddance on Saturday to 2022, which saw the city’s deadliest summer on record, more than 500 homicides, and nearly 1,800 shootings. But 2023 started off on a similar foot, with eight nonfatal shootings occurring in the first six hours of the new year. Only one of those resulted in an arrest as of the afternoon.

Shootings continued later in the day on Sunday, with two more reported before 5 p.m., including a double shooting in North Philadelphia, which resulted in one death. An 11th shooting was reported in the evening

At a quarter after midnight, police responded to the 3400 block of Salmon Street in Port Richmond, where an 87-year-old woman had been shot in the left shoulder. The victim was transported to Jefferson Frankford Hospital and was in stable condition, police said.

About 1 a.m. in East Frankford, on the 4800 block of Tackawanna Street, police responded to what they said was a domestic assault: A 30-year-old woman who was being attacked fired a gun at her attacker, hitting him in the abdomen. The 30-year-old man was taken to Temple University Hospital and was in stable condition. Police said the woman had a permit to carry. Police made an arrest and recovered a weapon.

At 1:45 a.m., police responded to Mercy Hospital, where a 19-year-old man with a gunshot wound to the neck had arrived by a private vehicle. Police said the shooting occurred on the 5600 block of Walnut Street. The victim was taken to Penn Presbyterian and was in stable condition.

Just after 2 a.m., a 26-year-old man was shot in the neck on the 3300 block of Ridge Avenue, in Strawberry Mansion. The victim was taken to Temple University Hospital and was in critical condition. Police said they had a suspect in the shooting.

At 2:37 a.m., police responded to reports of gunfire on the 1900 block of North Third Street, where they found an 18-year-old man shot in the right leg and a 15-year-old shot in the left biceps and right forearm. They were taken to Temple University Hospital and were in stable condition.

At 3:51 a.m., a 24-year-old man was shot in the left forearm on the 2800 block of North Lawrence Street. He was taken to Temple University Hospital and was in stable condition.

Just after 4:30 a.m., police responded to Temple University Hospital, where a 38-year-old man had been taken with two graze wounds to the head. Police said the shooting occurred inside a property on the 2500 block of Ridge Avenue. The victim was in stable condition.

At 5:10 a.m., police responded to Temple University Hospital to a report of a 34-year-old man shot in the left thigh; he was in stable condition. Police said the shooting occurred on the 4100 block of North Broad Street in the Nicetown neighborhood.

Later in the day, at 1:53 p.m., a 58-year-old man was outside on the 5900 block of Master Street, in the Carroll Park section of the city, when he was shot in the right leg. Police took him to Lankenau Medical Center, where he was in stable condition. The police held the scene on Master Street and a house around the corner on the 1300 block of North 60th Street.

At 2:10 p.m., a 31-year-old man was outside on the 3000 block of Clifford Street in North Philadelphia when he was shot in the chest. He was taken by police to Temple University Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 2:40 p.m. A second victim, a 34-year-old man, was shot in the left leg and was in stable condition at Temple.

At 7:22 p.m., a 17-year-old standing outside on the 1900 block of West Montgomery Avenue was grazed on his right leg in another shooting. Medics took him to St. Christopher’s Hospital, where he was in stable condition.

As of 11:59 p.m. on Dec. 31, Philadelphia police reported 514 homicides in 2022, down slightly from 2021′s all-time high of 562. Last year was the second consecutive year that the city has seen more than 500 homicides, a record previously set in 1990, at the height of the crack-cocaine epidemic. (2020 saw 499 homicides.)

Last summer, between Memorial Day and Labor Day, nearly eight people, on average, were shot every day with more women and children shot than ever before.

As of Dec. 26, there had been 1,794 nonfatal shootings reported in the city in 2022, just shy of the previous two years’ totals, which surpassed 1,800. The marked uptick in nonfatal shootings prompted the police department to launch a new unit in February to investigate these cases.