8 shootings, including a double homicide that injured a 7-year-old, mark a violent Philly weekend

Eight shootings — including a quadruple and a triple —occurred over a tragically violent weekend in Philadelphia, leaving two people dead and at least 13 injured, including a child.

In the quadruple shooting Saturday night in the city’s Nicetown section, a 7-year-old girl was grazed by a bullet on the side of her head and her 26-year-old mother was shot in the arm just before 8:30 p.m. on the 1900 block of West Hunting Park Avenue, police said.

The girl was taken to Jefferson Einstein Philadelphia Hospital and then St. Christopher’s Hospital for Children, where she was in stable condition Sunday, police said. Her mother was in stable condition at Jefferson Einstein, police said.

Two men, ages 29 and 26, who were each shot multiple times, were pronounced dead at Temple University Hospital, police said.

It was the second quadruple shooting involving a mother and children in Philadelphia since Thursday, when gunfire during a graduation party in North Philadelphia critically injured four people, including a mother and her two children, a 12-year-old daughter, and an 11-year-old son.

“These traumatic events will never be forgotten in the lives of particularly these young people who have a lot more life to live,” City Councilmember Cindy Bass said Sunday of the shootings, one of which took place in her district. She said the issue now will be how to get resources and support to the children and families affected.

“The children who have been shot, and those who were not shot and don’t have the physical wounds, have a mental scar that needs attention,” Bass said.

About a mile from the site of the quadruple shooting, police responded to Roberts and Stokley Streets in Nicetown shortly before 5:30 a.m. Sunday and found a 26-year-old woman with a gunshot wound to the head and a 23-year old man shot in the leg. They were taken to Temple in critical and stable condition, respectively. Police said a 33-year-old man with a gunshot wound to his face arrived at Roxborough Hospital around 6:20 a.m. and was transferred to Jefferson Einstein in stable condition.

A suspect in the triple shooting, a 33-year-old man, walked into Nazareth Hospital with a gunshot wound on his left arm, police said. He was detained and transported to Penn Presbyterian Medical Center for treatment as a prisoner hospital case. Charges are pending.

There were no reported arrests in the weekend’s other shootings. They included:

A shooting just before noon on Sunday on the 5100 block of Kingsessing Avenue. The victim, whose gender was not released, was transported by private vehicle to Penn Presbyterian in stable condition.

On Saturday, about three hours before the quadruple shooting, police responded to a call on the 1600 block of Orthodox Street, near the Arrott Transportation Center in Frankford. Initial reports were that about 10 shots were fired at a large gathering there in a vacant lot.

Police said preliminary information suggests an altercation occurred when an individual allegedly brandished a firearm and threatened a member of the private security team. A security guard, armed with a rifle, responded by discharging his weapon.

Officers later located the individual described and recovered a firearm from his possession. He was transported to a nearby hospital for treatment of a gunshot wound to his leg.

Earlier, around 8:15 p.m., officers responded to a call on the 100 block of West Tioga Street in Fairhill, where a 42-year-old man had been shot multiple times. He was transported to Temple Hospital where he remained in critical condition Sunday.

Early Saturday morning, around 1, police responded to a home on the 4500 block of North 20th Street in Nicetown, where they found a woman had been shot. The victim was transported to Jefferson Einstein; her age and condition unknown.

Around 9:30 p.m Friday, two men were injured in a drive-by shooting in West Philadelphia. Police said three men were shot at while sitting on the steps of a residence when a dark-colored sedan drove by and someone fired from the back door.

Both victims found by police were transported to Penn Presbyterian — a 33-year-old man with gunshot wounds to the right side of his torso and upper leg, and a 49-year-old man with a gunshot wound in his right leg. They were reported in critical and stable condition, respectively.

Less than an hour later, a 49-year-old man with two gunshot wounds to the abdomen was brought by private vehicle to Temple’s emergency department. No additional information on where that shooting occurred was available. He was reported in stable condition.

The last few weeks have been particularly violent compared to a relative drop in crime overall. The last 28-day period has seen a rise in shooting victims of about 27%, according to police data, though shooting incidents year-to-date are down 9% compared to last year.

Bass, the Council member representing parts of North Philadelphia, said families in her district need to be engaged in the lives of younger people living with them. She noted many shooters in recent crimes have been young people, often living at home.

“Some of these shooters are living at home with parents and grandparents,” Bass said. “This is less of a police problem and more of a problem with us interacting with young people under our care. What do you do when the shooter lives with you?”