Six homicides and Penn’s Landing triple shooting cap an extremely violent Philly weekend

A weekend of sweltering record-high temperatures in Philadelphia was marked by a rash of violence, including six homicides and a Saturday evening shooting at Penn’s Landing that left three 14-year-olds injured.

The gun violence occurred across the city, from South Philadelphia to Lawncrest, and brought Philadelphia’s death toll to more than 180 for the year. That figure was tracking behind the record pace of killings in 2021. The pace in 2022, however, is 50% above the year-to-date average of homicides for the last decade.

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Just before 11 p.m. Saturday, a 32-year-old man was shot repeatedly in an alley behind the 7200 block of North 20th Street in Logan. At 1:40 a.m. Sunday, a 23-year-old man was shot in the head in Lawncrest. A third man, believed to be about 30, was shot near 21st and Diamond Streets in North Philadelphia at 4 a.m. At 6 a.m., a 52-year-old man was shot twice in the chest on the street in Franklinville. The fifth victim, a 29-year-old man, was shot multiple times by four assailants on Sunday afternoon, in a house on the 4900 block of Aspen Street in West Philadelphia’s Mill Creek section. And, a man described by police as late teens to early 20s died after being shot in the head on the street around 5 p.m. Sunday in Ogonotz.

All six men died, police said, and no arrests were made or motives identified as of Sunday.

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At least eight people were wounded by gunfire over the weekend, some of them critically, and at least five were stabbed.

Two girls were shot in the foot and a boy was shot in the ribs shortly before 10 p.m. Saturday at Penn’s Landing, police said. The teens were in stable condition. Police said the gunfire interrupted festivities in the plaza, though they could not say how many people were in the vicinity when shots rang out. They attributed the violence to an argument involving another teen. No arrests had been made.

On Sunday afternoon, a quadruple stabbing in a park in Nicetown left four men injured, police said. A suspect was arrested.In addition, a 43-year-old man was arrested in the stabbing of a woman in the arm early Sunday morning in Summerdale.

In addition, two 18-year-old men were hospitalized with multiple bullet wounds after being shot about 11 p.m. on the 1400 block of South 23rd Street, according to police. About the same time, a 37-year-old man was wounded near 10th and Poplar. After midnight, two men were shot in separate episodes in Swampoodle.

In only one of those shootings did police identify a possible motive: an armed robbery. No arrests had been made as of Sunday.