Police investigate two fatal shootings in Philadelphia, including one in a schoolyard
An earlier shooting in Southwest Philadelphia left a 28-year-old man dead and a 22-year-old man injured, police said.
The neighborhood nestled against Wakefield Park near James Logan Elementary School where a young man was killed and a teen was injured in a schoolyard shooting Thursday night was quiet moments before a thunderstorm broke the silence Friday morning.
Residents of North 17th Street, across from the school, in the Logan section of the city, said Friday morning that the shooting was unusual in what they said was a generally safe neighborhood.
One woman who did not see the shooting said the gunfire had “shocked everybody,” adding she was relieved it that it happened on a cloudy evening and not a warm sunny one that would have drawn more children outside to play.
Shots rang out at 17th and Ruscomb Streets, in the James Logan schoolyard, just after 6 p.m., police and school district officials said. When officers arrived they found two victims, an 18-year-old man with a gunshot wound and a 16-year-old boy who they said had been shot three times.
No students or staff from James Logan Elementary School were involved in the shooting, the School District of Philadelphia said in a statement.
The victims — whom police did not identify — were taken to Jefferson Einstein Philadelphia Hospital, where the 18-year-old was pronounced dead just after 6:30 p.m., police said. The 16-year-old was in stable condition as of Friday, police said.
No weapons were recovered and no arrests have been made as police continue to investigate the shooting.
An hour earlier Thursday, on the 2200 block of South Felton Street in the Southwest section of the city, another shooting left a 28-year-old man dead and a 22-year-old in critical condition, police said.
Police arrived to find the two men with gunshot wounds and they were both taken to Penn Presbyterian Medical Center. The 28-year-old man was pronounced dead at 5:37 p.m. and the 22-year-old man was still in critical condition as of Friday.
The shooting remains under investigation, and no arrests have been made.
Authorities did not identify the victims as they await notification of next of kin.
Since 2015, there have been 44 reported shootings reporter within a quarter mile of the elementary school, according to police data.