PHILADELPHIA –
A shooting killed three people and injured at least 11 others in a popular entertainment district in downtown Philadelphia late at night, authorities said.
Police officers patrolled the South Street area in the center of Philadelphia when they heard numerous shots and witnessed several suspects to shoot in a large crowd shortly before midnight, police inspector DF Pace said during a press conference.
A police officer shot one of the suspects from a distance of about 30 feet (9 meters), but it is unclear whether the suspect was shot, Pace said.
“You can imagine hundreds of people just enjoying South Street, as they do every weekend when this shooting broke out,” Pace said.
Two men and a woman were among those killed in the shooting, he said. Their names were not made public by the authorities. University Hospital Thomas Jefferson spokesman Damien Woods said three of the 10 patients who came to the hospital were dead, six were in stable condition and one had been discharged.
Two pistols were found, including one with an extended magazine, police said. No arrests have been made.
South Street is famous for its entertainment and nightlife with many bars, restaurants and businesses. A video of local business surveillance, published by WTXF-TV, shows dozens of people walking on the sidewalks and on the street, who then suddenly began to flee en masse when the shooting began.
Pace said police expect to be able to collect “many CCTV footage” from many companies on the street later in the day to try to identify suspects.
Mayor Jim Kenny called the shooting “beyond devastating.”
“Once again, we see meaninglessly lost lives and wounded in another horrific, brazen and contemptuous act of gun violence,” he said in a statement Sunday morning. “My heart is with family, friends, relatives of the lost or wounded, and all those affected by this terrible tragedy.”
Kenny said that the increase in gun violence in the city and across the country “makes me not only break my heart, but also get angry.” However, he said fighting it would be a “tough battle” without measures to tackle “the availability and easy access to firearms”.
Eric Walsh, closing the outdoor seating area at a bar next to the block, told The Philadelphia Inquirer that the scene was “chaos”. He said he saw a young woman collapse on the ground in the corner.
“People came out of the street splattering blood on white sneakers, skinned knees and elbows,” Walsh said. “We were literally just piling napkins, getting them wet and handing them out to people.”
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