Mass shooting in Philadelphia, PA leaves 3 dead, 11 injured

shutterstock_1016514379

Philadelphia police confirm that a mass shooting took place late Saturday night, leaving three people dead and at least 11 other people injured.  Police Inspector D.F. Pace said that officers patrolling the area heard gunfire from South Street, an entertainment district with bars and restaurants, just before midnight and saw “several active shooters shooting into the crowd.”  One officer fired his weapon at one of the shooters but Pace said that it was not clear if the suspect, who dropped the gun and fled, was hit.

Said Pace: “There were hundreds of individuals just enjoying South Street, as they do every single weekend, when this shooting broke out.”  No arrests have been made but police recovered two semiautomatic handguns at the scene, including one with an extended magazine.  The three victims who were killed, two men and a woman, have not been identified. The conditions of the victims who were wounded were not immediately known.

After a separate incident just a few blocks away near 4th Street and Bainbridge Street, police officers found 13 bullet casings, and are investigating whether the incidents are connected.  In a third shooting just a couple blocks north of South Street, and about two hours after that incident, police responded to reports of gunfire on Broad Street. A man was found nearby unconscious and with multiple gunshot wounds nearly an hour later, and after being taken to a local hospital, he was pronounced dead.

Editorial credit: Jerome LABOUYRIE / Shutterstock.com