Four people are dead and four more are injured, including two children ages 2 and 13, after a mass shooting in Philadelphia Monday night, as a man wearing a ballistic vest and a person believed to have shot back at him have been taken into custody.
Brief security camera video shows the shooter just walking down the street, firing at people.
A spokesperson for the Philadelphia Police Department confirmed there were ‘multiple gunshot victims’ but said no further details were immediately available.
Officers got a call about a male armed with a rifle in the Kingsessing section of the city at around 8:30 p.m., according to the Inquirer.
Philadelphia police were dispatched to 56th Street and Chester Avenue, where they found several victims.
Four people are dead and four more are injured, including two juveniles, after a mass shooting in Philadelphia Monday night, as a man wearing a ballistic vest has been taken into custody
Police spokesperson Jasmine Reilly told the network six victims were taken to Penn Presbyterian Medical Center and two were taken to the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.
Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw said at a news conference that all the victims were male, including the two year old and the 13-year-old.
Three of the four people killed were men between the ages of 20 to 59, according to police, while the fourth person dead’s age has not yet been made available.
The suspect was arrested in an alley without incident, Outlaw said. He had a bulletproof vest, multiple magazines, an ‘AR-type rifle,’ a handgun and a police scanner, she said.
CNN reported that the shooter had three weapons total.
‘At this point all we know is that this person decided to leave their home and target individuals,’ Outlaw said.
A second person is also in custody after police believe they returned the gunman’s fire.
The police did not fire any shots themselves.
A spokesperson for the Philadelphia Police Department confirmed there were ‘multiple gunshot victims’ but said no further details were immediately available
Officers got a call about a male armed with a rifle in the Kingsessing section of the city at around 8:30 p.m.
Philadelphia police were dispatched to 56th Street and Chester Avenue, where they found several victims
Police spokesperson Jasmine Reilly told the network six victims were taken to Penn Presbyterian Medical Center and two were taken to the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia
Shortly after the shooting, a suspect wearing a ballistic vest was brought into custody nearby. The police did not fire any shots themselves
Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney, a Democrat, tweeted about the shooting about two hours later.
‘Horrified by the reports of a shooting in Southwest Philadelphia,’ he said. ‘My heart is with the loved ones and families of everyone involved, and I send my prayers to the victims.’
‘My sincere thanks to @PhillyPolice for their brave response and successful apprehension of a suspect.’
The shooting occurred a day after gunfire erupted at a holiday weekend block party in Baltimore, about 100 miles (160 kilometers) to the southwest, killing two people and wounding 28 others. The wounded in that shooting ranged in age from 13 to 32, with more than half of them minors, according to officials.
The Philadelphia violence marks the country´s 29th mass killing in 2023, according to a database maintained by The Associated Press and USA Today in partnership with Northeastern University.
So far this year, the nation has witnessed the highest number on record of mass killings and deaths to this point in a single year.
There have been more than 550 mass killing incidents since 2006, according to the database, in which at least 2,900 people have died and at least 2,000 people have been injured.
Police are still investigating the shooting.