- Three people died and 11 others were injured after multiple shooters fired into a crowd on a busy Philadelphia street.
- No arrests were made, but a police officer fired at one of the shooters, who dropped his gun and fled.
- The US has been rocked by a series of high-profile shootings in recent weeks, including a deadly mass shooting at a Texas school.
Washington – Three people were killed and 11 others were wounded on Saturday after multiple shooters opened fire into a crowd on a popular Philadelphia street, police said.
Police Inspector D.F. Pace told local media that two men and a woman had been killed, adding that officers responding to the incident "observed several active shooters shooting into the crowd".
Pace said:
He said that "numerous" officers were already on the scene when the first shots were heard, describing it as a "standard deployment" for the area on summer weekend nights.
A responding officer fired at one of the shooters, who dropped his gun and fled, though it was unclear whether the man was hit, Pace said.
Local media reported that no arrests had been made.
Saturday night in Philadelphia. A mass shooting on 4th & South Street with reports of nearly a dozen people shot. I’m on scene where police have cordoned off the popular weekend strip, a trail of what appears to be blood snaking along the sidewalk in front of a Rita’s Water Ice. pic.twitter.com/mkUoTvgy2I
— Max M. Marin (@MaxMMarin) June 5, 2022
Pace said two semi-automatic handguns, one with an extended magazine, were recovered at the scene.
He added that police would have to wait until morning to review surveillance footage from nearby businesses that were closed on Saturday night.
Pace described the investigation as "fluid", saying there were still "a lot of unanswered questions".
Series of high-profile shootings
The US has been rocked by a series of high-profile shootings in recent weeks, including at a school in Texas, a church in California, a grocery store in New York, and a hospital in Oklahoma. The incidents have collectively left dozens dead.
Bystander Joe Smith, 23, told The Philadelphia Inquirer that his mind had flashed to the recent incidents when he heard the first shots ring out on Saturday.
He told the outlet:
"There was guttural screaming," he added. "I just heard screams."
Another witness, Eric Walsh, described to the Inquirer scenes of people fleeing the shooting "coming off the street with blood splatters on white sneakers and skinned knees and skinned elbows".
The Inquirer reported that another person was fatally shot just blocks from the scene about two hours later, but police said that the two incidents were not believed to be linked.
During warmer months, gun violence tends to spike in the United States, where there were an estimated 393 million guns in circulation in 2020, more than the number of people.
US President Joe Biden last week forcefully called for new gun control legislation in response to the recent violence, lamenting the "everyday places that have become killing fields, battlefields here in America".
A bipartisan group of Senators met on Thursday to discuss a package of firearms controls, but Republicans have historically resisted tougher gun laws.
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