As Saturday saw a deadly shooting of 9 people outside a bar in the intersection between the Kensington and Allegheny neighbourhoods in Philadelphia, at 10:45 pm, more shootings have occurred in the city during the past few days as well. Another incident was recorded along the 5400 block of Akron Street at 5:56 p.m. on Wednesday night when a gunman on a curb fired at least 21 shots from only a few feet away. This time shooting his victim at least 15 times throughout his chest, abdomen and right arm.
Another instance on Monday of the same week was on a SEPTA subway where a teenager shot a 21-year-old man.
For the incident outside the bar, it has been confirmed that there was more than a single shooter and that at least 40 shots were fired. The gunmen got out of a black vehicle and began firing at a crowd of people on the sidewalk, before getting back into their cars. Addressing the attitudes of the perpetrators of the incident, First Deputy Commissioner John Stanford said, "We have some brazen individuals in this city that don't care. They don't care how many police officers are out here, and some of them don't care in terms of how many people are out here."
The victims were of ages within the range of 23-40.
"At this point in time it looks like these individuals may have spotted someone they wanted to shoot at, exited the vehicle and just began firing at the group of individuals that were there," commented Stanford.
The incident moved the mayor of Philadelphia to convey in a tweet: "I'm appalled and devastated by this despicable, brazen act of gun violence. My heart is with the family and loved ones of those injured, and with everyone impacted by this tragedy."
It is ironic that the PPD is priding itself on the fact that it had recorded at least 455 homicides in the city in 2022, down 4 per cent from the same time last year.
It has also elicited conversations surrounding gun control in the United States, a topic that seems to regularly spark mixed opinions and passionate responses from citizens all over the world. The question that continues to loom over the country is how long, how many such incidents, and how young the victims are before these conversations can graduate into action.
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