At least two dozen people were shot in a weekend of violence in Philadelphia that killed 4 and marred a holiday market
"The reality is we cannot and will not rest until every resident in every neighborhood feels safe in their homes, going to school, or walking in their community," Mayor Cherelle L. Parker said.
At least 25 people were shot over the weekend in Philadelphia, starting with a shooting outside a Christmas market at City Hall that critically injured a 14-year-old boy and turned a site of holiday cheer into a crime scene.
The bloodshed that began at Dilworth Park shortly before dusk Friday, sending shoppers and vendors scrambling for cover and leaving one teen shot in the face and two others shot in their legs, stretched on through the weekend across a city that has been optimistic about a trend toward less violence.
The weekend surge — including a quintuple shooting early Sunday in Feltonville that left a 23-year-old man dead — came in a year where the city has experienced a significant decrease in the number of people killed by guns.
“Every shooting and homicide in Philadelphia personally pains me and my administration,” Mayor Cherelle L. Parker said in a statement Sunday. “While we are making progress as a City on public safety, the reality is we cannot and will not rest until every resident in every neighborhood feels safe in their homes, going to school, or walking in their community. We have much more work to do — and we are doing that work every day … to make Philadelphia the safest big city in America.”
One of the injured was a 39-year-old bystander, police said, who got shot in the leg as he came out of his house on 32nd Street in Mantua around 6:30 p.m. Saturday as a man sitting in a parked car was gunned down by several shooters in what is being considered a targeted hit.
In all, at least four people died by gunfire over the weekend, according to police reports.
Meanwhile, police have a 14-year-old in custody, charged as an adult with aggravated assault and related offenses, and are searching for at least one other suspect in connection with the shooting of three teens during an argument Friday outside the Christmas Village and the Rothman Orthopaedics Rink.
Investigators believe the shooting was sparked by an argument between teens that had started at Freire Charter School at 20th and Chestnut Streets earlier in the day, said two law enforcement sources who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing investigation. The conflict spilled into the alleyway behind the building after dismissal, said the sources.
Those who were eventually shot might have run to the Christmas Village hoping the holiday crowds might deter the other teens trying to fight with them, the sources said. But those youths followed. One then pulled a gun and shot the boys, police said.
The teen who was arrested and charged is not believed to be the shooter, the sources said, but part of the group that started the fight. Detectives are still working to identify other members of that group, including the shooter.
The 14-year-old struck in the face remained at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in critical condition Sunday. His mother, reached by phone Sunday, remained too overwhelmed to speak.
Another 14-year-old boy shot in the calf was taken to Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia by his mother. A 15-year-old boy also shot in the calf was treated at Jefferson Hospital.
Center City District President and CEO Prema Katari Gupta told news outlets on Saturday that her organization will be working with police and city officials to ensure that Dilworth Park remains safe.
“It is important to emphasize that this was an isolated incident at Dilworth Park, which has seen more than 11 million visitors so far this year,” she said in a statement.
Police had made few arrests in what amounted to at least 11 separate shooting incidents over the weekend.
Among them:
Just hours after Friday’s shooting at the Christmas Village, three men were shot, one fatally, on the 100 block of Hansberry Street in the Penn-Knox section of Germantown.
Around 9:15 p.m. Friday, an 18-year-old man and 15-year-old boy were struck by bullets on Shelmire Avenue in Holmesburg, police said. The man, struck in the chin and arm, was in critical condition. The boy, struck in an arm, was listed in stable condition.
Shortly after 1 a.m. Saturday, a 23-year-old man and a 30-year-old woman were shot at the Bamboo Nightclub on Bustleton Avenue in Oxford Circle. Both were being treated for leg wounds at Temple University Hospital.
A triple shooting around 1 a.m. Sunday inside Henny’s Sports Bar at 29th Street and Chalmers Avenue in North Philadelphia left a 48-year-old man dead and two other men injured, police said.
Around that same time, police responded to gunfire at North Broad Street and Windrim Avenue in Logan, finding a 42-year-old man shot in the shoulder. He was treated for his wound at Einstein Medical Center.
It was an hour before dawn Sunday when five men between the ages of 23 and 45 were shot in a hail of gunfire at D Street and Wyoming Avenue, police said. The 23-year-old died at Temple Hospital soon after, police said. Three of the other men were in listed stable condition, police said. Police did not have the condition of the 45-year-old victim, who had been shot multiple times.
And around 5 p.m., a 41-year-old man was shot in Pennypack Park, near the intersection of Frankford and Solly Avenues. He was listed in stable condition at Jefferson Torresdale Hospital with a gunshot wound to the left shoulder. Two suspects were in custody, police said.
Not counting the lives lost this weekend, so far this year 212 people have died from gun violence, and 803 have suffered nonfatal injuries, according to the City Controller Office report. That represents a sharp decrease from the 1,291 people who were nonfatally wounded in 2023, and the 375 people who died in shootings last year.
“At least two dozen families’ holidays will look different after this weekend,” Councilmember-at-large Kendra Brooks said Sunday. “The heartbreaking shootings across Philadelphia starting with [three] teenagers getting shot at City Hall on Friday cannot be a sign of things to come for the holiday season.”
Carl Day, a North Philadelphia pastor who mentors young people at Culture Changing Christians Worship Center, said that gun violence often tends to rise during the end-of-year holiday season, an especially tough time for families.
”These are all reminders that a lot of these issues still persist and we have to continue the work,” Day said. “I would just really implore community members to step up and put their arms around our young people.”