Multiple Shooters Open Fire in Packed City Nightlife Area
One of Philadelphia’s top night-life areas turned into a scene of terror late Saturday when at least three died after gunfire broke out involving multiple shooters.
At least 11 were wounded.
According to The Philadelphia Inquirer, the shooting started at about 11:30 p.m. at Second and South streets, a hub of city nightlife for generations.
At least one of the shooters was a woman, the Inquirer reported.
*Alert* Emergency personnel are responding to a shooting incident in the area of 3rd and South Streets. Several people have been injured. Please avoid the area.
— Philadelphia Police (@PhillyPolice) June 5, 2022
The Inquirer reported that a Philadelphia police officer on the scene managed to fire at one of the shooters, who dropped a weapon. The shooter might have been wounded in the forearm, but it was not certain that a police officer’s shot was responsible, the Inquirer reported.
No suspects have been arrested, but according to Fox News, police are seeking a woman who drove off in a 2018 Volkswagen Atlas with a New Jersey license plate.
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
The dead included a 25-year-old woman and a 22-year-old man, the Inquirer reported.
The wounded were taken to Pennsylvania Hospital, Thomas Jefferson University Hospital and Penn Presbyterian Medical Center, the Inquirer reported.
At least one witness told reporters the shooting made him think of other recent mass shootings where the number of dead was in the double digits. Considering the location where the shooting broke out, the carnage Saturday night could have been much worse.
“You can imagine there were hundreds of individuals enjoying South Street, as they do every single weekend, when this shooting broke out,” police spokesman D.F. Pace Pace said, according to the Inquirer.
Witnesses described a scene of terror and mayhem.
“It was chaos,” Eric Walsh, an employee O’Neals Pub on Third Street, told the Inquirer.
“People were coming off the street with blood splatters on white sneakers and skinned knees and skinned elbows. We literally just were balling up napkins and wetting them and handing them to people… it was chaos.”
Another witness agreed.
“Once it started I didn’t think it was going to stop,” a man identified as 23-year-old Joe Smith, told the Inquirer.
He said he immediately thought of the recent shootings in Uvalde, Texas, and Buffalo, New York. It was unknown Sunday morning if the Philadelphia shootings were similar attacks, where random individuals end up targeted, or something else.
“There was guttural screaming,” Smith said. “I just heard screams.”
Police recovered two semi-automatic handguns from the shooting scene, Pace said, according to the Inquirer.
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