Two police officers were shot during a Fourth of July celebration in Philadelphia on Monday, prompting panicked crowds to flee the scene as fireworks burst behind them.
Twitter users posted footage from the city’s Ben Franklin Parkway Monday night, which show event goers running and screaming from the ongoing Wawa Welcome America celebration. The Philadelphia Inquirer reported the show had just begun before accounts of a shooting began to spread through the crowd, prompting a stampede down the roadway.
The officers were injured in front of the Philadelphia Art Museum while working security at the event. A bullet grazed the forehead of one officer and lodged in his cap and another was injured after a bullet grazed his shoulder, the Inquirer reported. Both were discharged from the hospital later that evening.
It’s unclear where the shots were fired from, or if they were intentional, authorities said. Philadelphia Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw said she was “extremely grateful that this wasn’t worse than it was,” noting no one else was shot at the event.
No arrests have been made.
Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney said he was continually worried about gun violence at large events, saying he was “waiting for something bad to happen all the time.”
“The weather was beautiful, the concert was beautiful, but we live in America and we have the Second Amendment and we have the Supreme Court of the United States telling everybody they can carry a gun wherever they want,” Kenney said at a news conference early Tuesday morning. “We have to come to grips with what this country is about right now. We had a beautiful day out there today except for some nitwit ... who has a gun and probably shouldn’t have had it.”
The shooting was just one of several on Monday night, including a devastating massacre in Highland Park, Illinois, which left at least 6 people dead and dozens injured. Police arrested a 22-year-old person of interest in that attack.
