On the streets of Philadelphia, 2022 began where 2021 left off. It took less than four hours for 14 people to get shot, two of them killed in two separate violent outbursts. One of the dead was only 16 years old.
Police responded to calls for a person shot on Cecil B. Moore Avenue between Wellington and 17th Streets near Temple University at about 1:50 a.m. Saturday. Officers found two people who had been shot, one of them a 16-year-old boy with a single gunshot wound to the back of his head. The other was a 27-year-old man who had been shot once in the left leg. Both were rushed to Temple University Hospital, where the teenager died shortly after arrival. The man was listed in stable condition. Police did not identify the victims.
Two women and one man also suffered gunshot wounds at the scene, and Temple University police took all three to Temple Hospital. A 23-year-old woman was shot once in the leg, and another woman, about 20 years old, was shot once in the pelvis. Both were in stable condition Saturday afternoon. Gunfire also struck a man, also about 20 years old, multiple times in the chest and he’s in critical condition, police said.
All victims were part of a large group gathered to celebrate the new year. No weapon was recovered, police said.
“We do not have a lot of information on the shooter,” Inspector D F Pace told reporters at the scene. But there are numerous surveillance cameras in the area.
“Our homicide detectives will be combing through that video to see what else we can glean with respect to what occurred here this evening,” he said.
Shortly before that shooting, at around 1:30 a.m., 25th District officers received multiple calls about gunshots in the 100 block of East Luray Street near North Front Street in Feltonville. Police found a 33-year-old man who had been shot multiple times in the chest. He was rushed to Temple Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
Two women, both 23 and acquaintances of the victim, were shot once in the leg. Police took them to Temple, where they were listed in stable condition.
The crime scene was an auto parts or repair shop that had been converted as a backdrop for a large New Year’s Eve bash. Police found six spent shell casings, one projectile and a significant amount of blood, Pace said.
Homicide detectives were questioning a number of the revelers.
At 2:15 a.m., a man and a woman were shot at 8th and Cambria Streets in the Fairhill section. A 36-year-old man was struck twice in the right leg, and once in the left. A 22-year-old woman was shot in the right eye. Both were taken by a private vehicle to Temple Hospital, where they were in stable condition.
At 3:23 a.m., a 28-year-old man was shot twice in the lower leg at Torresdale Avenue and Howell Street in the Wissinoming section. He was in stable condition at Temple Hospital.
And there was a triple shooting in the 3900 block of Frankford Avenue, but police have not yet determined when gunshots started popping. Police recovered weapons nearby. A 23-year-old man was shot once in the leg and was taken by a private car to Temple Hospital. Two men, 21 and 23, who were both shot in the abdomen, walked into St. Christopher’s Hospital for Children. Both are listed in critical but stable condition, police said.
This was the continuation of a year in Philadelphia that hit an all-time high for killings. In 2021, at least 560 people were murdered, a bigger tally than in more heavily populated cities including New York and Los Angeles.
The vast majority of Philadelphia homicides have been committed with firearms. And the number of women slain has surged. As of last Monday, 70 women were killed in homicides last year, an 84% leap from 2020.
On Nov. 20, Jessica Covington, 32, who was pregnant, was shot multiple times in the head and stomach just after 8:30 p.m. on the 6100 block of Palmetto Street in Crescentville, where she lived. Both she and her unborn baby were killed. She had just left her own baby shower and was unloading gifts from her vehicle when shots rang out, detectives believe.
Last Thursday, a gunfight erupted in Germantown that left a 21-year-old woman in critical condition and five men injured. Six armed men had jumped out of a van and opened fire on the group on a street corner. Some of those people shot back.
In all, more than 65 shots were traded on the 5100 block of Germantown Avenue near Collom Street.
The gun battle prompted City Councilmember Cindy Bass, who represents the area, to ask Mayor Jim Kenney and Gov. Tom Wolf to dispatch National Guard troops to the city to support the Police Department and help enforce laws.
“We cannot fight the tragic escalation of gun violence alone,” Bass said in a statement.
Kenney said he had no plans to call in the National Guard. Earlier last year, he rejected similar calls by community activists as the number of shootings soared.
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