https://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/2...-gun-violence-crisis-another-violent-weekend/
Another Violent Weekend Continues To Shine Light On Philadelphia’s Gun Violence Crisis
By CBS3 Staff
August 16, 2020 at 11:05 pm
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) — Another weekend in Philadelphia saw a shocking spree of violence with dozens of people shot. The numbers are staggering with neighborhoods all over the city rocked by the violence. At least 35 people have been shot at 32 different scenes this weekend. There are three known homicides.
“Please put the guns down, man, stop the violence,” one Philadelphia man said.
On Sunday night, investigators were on the scene of a triple shooting in West Passyunk, where police say one 19-year-old man was struck four times. All three victims are in stable condition.
“I wish they never created guns because at the end of the day, people who use guns are monsters, man,” a man said.
The carnage continues throughout the city. Just after 5 p.m. Sunday, three gunshots killed a man in his 30s at 55th and Vine Streets in West Philadelphia. Police say the shooters were in a burgundy Sedan.
“It’s just a shame. It’s a shame that that happened,” a Philadelphia resident said.
Nervous neighbors reacted to the state of their neighborhood.
Mounds of trash were left behind at 10th and Brown Streets. That is were five people, including a 16-year-old boy, were shot around 11:30 p.m. Saturday. Police say the other victims include three men — 18 years old, 21 years old and 26 years old — and a 19-year-old woman.
“It was a sight,” a resident said. “I never seen nothing like that in my life.”
Police responded to what they called a block party going on with as many as 200 people. At first, police believed they were being shot at, Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw said.
Neighbors say the group of hundreds of people was memorializing a man who was shot a few years ago. They say the crowd was mostly peaceful until a group on motorcycles rode by and shot into the crowd.
“With no regards,” a resident said. “I don’t understand it. I really don’t. I don’t understand how somebody can be that heartless and shoot into a crowd of people like that.”
Investigators found 29 AR-15 rounds and 10 40 caliber rounds at the scene. A magazine was recovered from one of the shooting victims.
It’s important to note that while these block parties are happening more frequently in the city, they’re currently not permitted by officials because of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
Outlaw believes someone could step up and identify the shooters.
“There were a lot of people out here,” Outlaw said. “We do believe that someone knows who the shooters were and could possibly help us in identifying, figuring out exactly what happened.
That wasn’t the only overnight shooting.
A 40-year-old man was shot once in the chest and killed Sunday morning on the 4700 block of Lansing Street just before 5 a.m. in the city’s Holmesburg neighborhood. Police say the call came in as a burglary.
Another man was fatally shot on the 5000 block of Merion Avenue in Parkside. The victim was shot 10 times throughout the body around 3:30 a.m.
He was transported to Penn Presbyterian Medical Center where he succumbed to his injuries.
Two men are in critical condition following two separate shootings across the city.
One is a 24-year-old man who was shot once in the back and abdomen on the 2700 block of Judson Street just at 6:26 a.m. The other is a 23-year-old man who was shot twice on the 6100 block of Lansdowne Avenue just after 2:04 a.m.
Two additional men are in stable condition after suffering gunshot wounds during the overnight hours Sunday.
A 35-year-old man was shot once in the upper back and suffered a graze wound to his bicep near 56th Street and Willows Avenue at 5:15 a.m. And a 27-year-old was shot in the hand at Broad Street and Cecil B. Moore Avenue at 4:21 a.m. and transported to a local medical center in stable condition.
No arrests have been made in any of the overnight shooting incidents.
The shootings happened hours after the city held a gun give-back program.
“We’re in a race to save life,” EMIR Healing Center representative Chantay Love said.
A total of 43 guns were turned in on Saturday, including 33 handguns, 10 long guns — one being a sawed-off shotgun.
“Our neighborhoods have turned into cemeteries and we’re trying to turn it back into neighborhoods,” Love said.
Almost too many incidents to recite — at least 35 shooting victims and 32 shooting scenes and three stabbings. This epidemic showing zero signs of slowing as homicides in Philadelphia are up 27% in 2020, according to city statistics.
“It’s disturbing, it’s disheartening. Again, the pandemic has not been canceled,” Outlaw said. “You know, there’s a lot of things that bring us pause and concern. But again, day in and day out we will be here.”
And it’s not just the amount of homicides, but also the number of gunshot victims that are spiking in the city. The number of gunshot victims is up 55% this year from a year ago.
