Philadelphia mass shooting: Governor Tom Wolf says ‘enough, let’s act’ as gun violence kills three

Several gunmen reportedly opened fire on a busy Saturday night crowd in downtown Philadelphia, killing three people and injuring at least 11, the authorities said.

Officers were patrolling the city’s bustling South Street, a popular weekend destination lined bars and restaurants, when they saw “several active shooters shooting into the crowd”, Inspector D F Pace with the Philadelphia Police Department said at an early morning news conference Sunday.

”You can imagine there were hundreds of individuals just enjoying South Street, as they do every single weekend, when this shooting broke out,” Inspector Pace said.

A police officer at the scene who was standing within 10 to 15 yards of one of the suspected gunmen made opened fire on the man, the inspector told NBC Philadelphia.

The gunman dropped his firearm, but managed to escape arrest. Police are still actively searching the area for the suspects and no arrests have been made.

Two firearms were recovered at the scene and “numerous”shell casings lined the block, authorities said.

Read the full story from The Independent below.

Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney extended his condolences to the familes and friends of the Saturday night shooting in his city, saying that the events that transpired last night were “beyond devastating”.

“Once again, we see lives lost and people injured in yet another horrendous, brazen and despicable act of gun violence,” the mayor tweeted. “Our city and country have experienced a steep rise in gun violence over the past few years. We’ve spent these years grappling with this epidemic—doing everything not only to stop it but to try to understand why the violence continues—it’s senseless, needless and deeply troubling.”

“Until we address the availability and ease of access to firearms, we will always be fighting an uphill battle. As Mayor, I will continue to fight to protect our communities and urge others to advocate for stronger laws that keep guns out of the hands of violent individuals,” he tweeted in a thread.

Surveillance video footage from a business in downtown Philadelphia captured the chaotic scene that erupted after police say several gunmen opened fire on the busy nightlife scene.

In the video, shared by Fox News reporter Marcus Espinoza, hundreds of people can be seen standing outside of restaurants and bars in close proximity to one another.

The clip then shows the crowd of people begin to race away from the bustling intersection after they presumably heard the gunmen opening fire.

Police who had been patrolling the street, as is standard procedure on the weekends, reported that they saw “several active shooters shooting into the crowd” and afterwards recovered two semi-automatic handguns from the shooting scene.

No arrests have been made and officers were still engaged in an active manhunt early into Sunday morning.

On Saturday night, several gunmen opened fire at Second and South Streets in downtown Philadelphia, killing three and wounding at least 11.

In the immediate aftermath, the chaos from the night before still marred the city streets, with bullet holes breaking storefront windows, and blood staining the sidewalks where weekend revellers got caught in the crossfire of the brazen attack.

Watch the video below to see what the scene looked like in the early morning hours after the attack.

Three people were killed after gunmen brazenly opened fire into a crowd of people in downtown Philadelphia on Saturday night.

Fourteen people in total were caught in the crossfire, with 11 of them being injured.

So far, officers have revealed that two men and one woman were among the people killed in the mass shooting, all of whom suffered gunshot wounds and later died in hospital.

The victims of the shooting were identified by police as 22-year-old Kristopher Minners, 27-year-old Alexis Quinn and 34-year-old Gregory “Japan” Jackson, according to The Philadelphia Inquirer.

Ten victims were transported to Thomas Jefferson University Hospital to be treated, where three remain in stable condition while four others have been discharged. The remaining three were the victims who died while receiving treatment at the hospital following the attack, The New York Times reported.

A shooting outside a bar in Chattanooga, Tennessee, overnight left three people dead and 14 injured, according to police.

Two people died from gunshot wounds, while another was hit by a fleeing car, as chaos ensued when multiple shooters are believed to have opened fire early on Sunday, Chattanooga police chief Celeste Murphy said during a press conference.

“We’re trying to determine exactly what happened and what led up to this taking place,” she said on Sunday.

Among the 17 impacted by the shooting, 16 are adults.

Josh Marcus has more on this developing story below.

Crowds of people met Sunday morning in downtown Philadelphia to kick off the PHL Pride March, which this year marks the 50th anniversary of Philadelphia’s first Gay Pride Day.

At 11am, hundreds of people gathered at the north end of Independence Mall in front of the Constitution Center at 5th and Arch Streets, just a short walk away from the site where, only hours earlier, several gunmen opened fire on a crowd not much smaller than the one preparing to march in Sunday’s parade.

Videos online show hundreds of people taking part in the festivities in what turned out to be a day graced with perfect, sunny parade weather.

But not everyone online was posting selfies of themselves enjoying Sunday’s parade. Some took to posting about how, while they wished they could be downtown, they just didn’t feel safe in light of Saturday night’s shooting.

“packed a first aid kit for gunshot wounds before heading to phl pride today in case there’s another shooting. normal world,” tweeted one user just hours before the march began.

“I want to go to the PHL Pride March this morning, but after last night’s fatal shooting on South Street, I’m scared to even be out during the day. Especially around large groups,” wrote one Twitter user.

“I was just thinking this, wow!” tweeted another user in response.

Police have yet to make any arrests in connection with Saturday’s shooting and have not identified any suspects wanted in relation with the mass shooting that left three people dead and nearly a dozen injured.

One of the officers at the scene took a shot at one of the suspected gunmen when he saw the man firing into the busy crowd. The man, who was standing within 10 to 15 yards of the officer, then dropped his weapon and took off on foot, Philadelphia Police Inspector DF Pace said in an early morning news conference on Sunday.

Two semi-automatic wepaons were retrieved from the scene and “numerous” shell casings were scattered along the blocks where the violence erupted, police said.

Read more about the late-night shooting from The Independent below.

Between Friday morning and late Saturday night, the US recorded six separate mass shootings across the country. On Saturday alone, there were four deadly shootings that killed four people and injured at least 28, according to the Gun Violence Archive, which tracks the deadly events.

The United States has seen 240 mass shootings so far in 2022, which is defined by the non-profit organisation an incident involving four or more people being shot or killed at one time.

Early on Saturday morning, a 14-year-old girl was killed and eight other individuals were injured after a shooting at a Phoenix strip mall. According to initial police reports, around 100 people had gathered inside the building for a party when a fight broke out shortly before 1am. This escalated into a series of shootings that took place inside the building, in the parking lot and on the street outside.

In Michigan, four people were reportedly shot in Escorse, about a 20 minute drive away from Detroit, while in El Paso, five teens sustained injuries after they were shot during a graduation party, according to the KVIA.com.

This recent spate of gun violence comes on the heels of last weekend’s deadly Memorial Day celebrations, which clocked-in at least 12 mass shootings on the Saturday, Sunday and holiday Monday.

Read Rachel Sharp’s reporting which began tracking all the fatal gun incidents that have occurred in the US since the massacre in Uvalde, Texas.

President Joe Biden delivered a plea for action on gun violence on Thursday as the US reels from a spate of mass shootings, including horrific massacres in New York, Texas and now Pennsylvania.

While the president delivered a rare prime time address, members of the Senate, away from Washington on recess, began discussions on a possible compromise piece of legislation in response to the shocking scenes of slaughter which unfolded at a supermarket, an elementary school and a hospital over the past few weeks.

Senior Washington correspondent Eric Garcia writes for The Independent in a recent op-ed that while members from both parties are crossing the aisle, Republicans hold all the cards in this negotiation. And they also have a lot more to gain from walking away than from coming to a bigger agreement, he writes.

Continue reading the full op-ed from The Independent’s Eric Garcia below.