Violent Night In Philadelphia Leaves 1 Dead, 5 Injured As Police See Rise In Homicides
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - A violent night in Philadelphia ends with five people shot and one person dead. Now, police are investigating after several suspects opened fire in three separate shootings.
All three shootings happened within an hour-and-a-half of each other. Beginning just after 10:30 p.m. Tuesday in West Oak Lane, at least 10 bullets were fired in a deadly double shooting. A man was shot in the lower back and killed.
"The 35-year-old victim who died at Einstein Hospital was found just feet away from the front step of his home," Philadelphia Police Chief Inspector Scott Small said.
Just 58 minutes later, a man was shot in Point Breeze on the 2200 block of Watkins Street. He is currently listed in critical but stable condition.
Then just before midnight, three more people were shot in North Philadelphia. All are in stable condition.
"When they arrived on the 1800 block of Judson, there were multiple people running away from the scene. There were three lying on the road and on the highway,' Small said.
Four guns in total were recovered from the three shootings, including three semi-automatic weapons in North Philly, police said.
Acting Police Commissioner Christine Coulter says gun arrests and seizures are up for her department.
"It's frightening, no matter how many we seem to take off the street there are more back out there being used for unlawful purposes," Coulter said.
Even still, gun violence continues to plague the city.
"It's something as simple as, you know, 'he bumped into me coming out of the store.' Something I couldn't imagine taking someone's life over, but some people make that their first choice," Coulter said.
The city now has 256 homicides in 2019, according to police. That number is 2% higher at this point in the year than it was in 2018.
