Five people were killed in seven shootings across Philly in an eight-hour span this weekend
A 14-year-old is among the weekend's homicide victims. At least 76 people have been killed in the city this year in just 64 days.
A 14-year-old walking with his friends in Overbrook and a mother whose young child brought a gun he found on the street into their home were among seven people shot in an eight-hour period between Saturday night and Sunday morning in Philadelphia, according to police.
Five of the victims died, including the teen. The mother, whose shooting appears accidental, remains in stable condition, police said.
The shootings come less than a week after activists held a march against gun violence in Strawberry Mansion, following the shooting of seven people, including five teens and a 2-year-old, on Feb. 23 near the James G. Blaine School.
As of Sunday afternoon, at least 76 people have been killed in Philadelphia this year in a span of just 64 days, according to police statistics.
The 14-year-old killed in Overbrook Saturday is at least the 27th gun violence victim under the age of 18 in the city this year.
According to police, the teen was walking with friends on the 6000 block of Haddington Lane about 8:25 p.m. when the group heard a “rapid succession of gunfire.” When the victim’s friends stopped, they found him lying in the street with a gunshot wound to his chest.
The teen was taken to Lankenau Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead at 9:23 p.m.
Five minutes after that shooting, police were called to the 6000 block of Samson Street in West Philly, where two men, ages 24 and 33, were shot several times in the torso while sitting in a gray Hyundai parked on the block. According to police, a gunman fired from a white car into the victims’ passenger-side window before fleeing east on Sansom toward 52nd Street.
Both men, whose identities have not been released, were taken to Penn Presbyterian Medical Center, where they were pronounced dead within an hour.
At 9:21 p.m., a 19-year-old man was shot multiple times on the 3700 block of North Carlisle Street in Tioga and at 4:14 a.m. Sunday, a man believed to be in his 30s was shot eight times on the 2500 block of North Franklin Street in North Philly. The names of the men, both of whom died from their injuries, were not immediately released.
Police did not announce an arrest or suspect in any of the homicide cases.
Of the two nonfatal shooting victims, both were listed in stable condition, including the mother who was injured by a gun her 6-year-old son allegedly found outside of their home on the 5600 block of North Seventh Street in Olney.
The child brought the gun into the house and the victim took it and gave it to her husband, who tried to clear the weapon, but accidentally fired it, instead, striking his wife once in the hip shortly before 11 p.m., according to authorities.
Police said the shooting appears to have been accidental, but an investigation was continuing.
In the other nonfatal shooting, an 18-year-old man was shot twice in the upper left arm at 11:35 p.m. Saturday on the 1100 block of West Venango Street in Kensington, police said. .
Also injured was a 16-year-old boy who police said was stabbed in the torso and thigh while waiting on a subway platform for the Broad Street Line in Logan at 11:05 p.m. Saturday.
A weapon was recovered and an arrest made, but police did not release the name of the suspect. The victim was listed in stable condition.