‘Chaos after shots rang out’: 1 killed, 5 wounded in shooting at after-hours party in Philly

Gunfire erupted at an after-hours party in Nicetown early Saturday morning, killing a 29-year-old man and wounding five people, police said.

Neighbors and law enforcement sources spoke of a chaotic scene that had partygoers fleeing desperately down Germantown Avenue, leaving their belongings behind, after shots were fired around 3:45 a.m. on the 4200 block.

On the residential blocks that abut the avenue, neighbors said they had been woken by gunfire and lay awake, afraid to go to the windows.

“I was awakened by gunshots, and when I thought they were over with, there was another round,” said Kim Eatman, who lives in a rowhouse directly down the street from where the shooting took place. “I thought — I have to move out of here as quick as possible.”

A law enforcement source said that a motive in the shooting was unclear but that detectives were interviewing several witnesses and reviewing surveillance footage from the area. No arrests had been made.

“It just seems like it was chaos after shots rang out,” said the source, who did not want to be identified because that person was not authorized to speak publicly about the shooting.

The man who was killed, whose name police did not release, was shot 14 times “throughout his body,” police said. He was pronounced dead at Temple University Hospital 15 minutes after the shooting.

In addition, a 33-year-old man was shot once in the left leg, a 30-year-old woman was shot once in the right leg, a 41-year-old man was shot once in the right knee, and a 40-year-old woman was shot once in the buttocks, police said. All were taken to hospitals in private cars and were in stable condition. A fifth man, 38, was shot once in the right leg and was taken to Temple by medics; he, too, was in stable condition, police said.

The shooting took place inside a catering facility on Germantown Avenue that appeared to be hosting a “pop-up party,” the source said. It was unclear who had rented or was using the facility for a party, but about 150 people had showed up by early Saturday morning.

Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw told NBC10 at the shooting scene that the facility had been shut down by police before and that she would ask city leadership to level more sanctions against it. A law enforcement source said the facility would not have been permitted to hold a gathering as large as the one Friday night and early Saturday.

On the avenue Saturday, police taped off several blocks as detectives moved in and out of the storefront where the party had been held. Neighbors peered from front porches and corners, occasionally chatting with officers stationed at intersections.

A man standing outside a bodega, who declined to give his name, said his daughter’s friend had been at the party the night before, and that his daughter had spent the morning trying to learn whether her friend was among the victims. Eventually, the friend got in touch: She had escaped the gunshots by hiding under a chair.

“It’s frightening,” the man said. “Frightening and scary and worrying.”

The shooting was one of three that took place between Friday night and midday Saturday.

On Saturday afternoon, as detectives gathered evidence on Germantown Avenue and activists across the city hosted two marches against rising gun violence in Philadelphia, a 38-year-old man was shot three times on the 5900 block of Arch Street. He was taken to a hospital in stable condition.

Also, an 18-year-old man was shot in the left ankle Saturday afternoon on the 1300 block of St. Vincent Street in the Oxford Circle area of Northeast Philadelphia, police said. He was taken to a hospital by private vehicle and was listed in stable condition.

Two people were also stabbed in separate incidents elsewhere in the city, according to police.

After a major spike in gun violence last year, shootings in Philadelphia in 2021 have continued to rise. As of Friday, 106 people had been killed in the city this year, a 28% increase over the same period last year. The man killed early Saturday would be the city’s 107th homicide victim of 2021. More than 400 people have been shot this year.

For some, the toll is becoming too much to bear. Eatman, the neighbor awoken by gunshots, stuck by the impulse she had when she first heard them.

“I want to move out of Philadelphia, period,” she said. “Because of the increasing gun violence. It’s implausible. Unbelievable. And this is just the first quarter of the year.”