Gunfire claimed the lives of four people, including at least one teen, in separate shootings over a nine hour span on a steamy Friday in Philadelphia.
A 52-year-old man was the first die after a shooting around 2 p.m. along the 2300 block of N. 2nd Street in the city's Kensington neighborhood, police said.
A person dressed in a black blouse and tights and a burgundy wig shot the man as he got into his Hyundai Santa Fe, police said. Bullets pierced the man's chest, stomach, arm and shoulder.
The victim was taken to Temple University Hospital, where he died from his injuries, police said.
The shooter was last seen running to a black Nissan Maxima, having put the handgun in a purse they were carrying, and speeding off down Cumberland Street. The car had peeling paint on its rear and a round mirror where the driver's side mirror should have been, police said.
Three hours later, on the other side of the city in West Philadelphia, a young man died in the street after being shot three times, police said.
The victim, believed to be between 18 and 20 years old, was shot in the face, wrist and chest along the 5600 block of Osage Avenue.
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The last two deadly shootings happened at nearly the same time, around 10:30 p.m., police said.
On a Frankford basketball court at Hawthorne and Meadow streets, two men were peppered with gunfire, police said. A 24-year-old man died from his injuries at Temple University Hospital. The other man, a 27-year-old, is hospitalized in critical condition with wounds to his back and stomach.
Meanwhile, in the city's Germantown neighborhood, an 18-year-old was shot multiple times by three men along the 200 block of E. Collom Street, police said. The teen was unresponsive when officers arrived and was rushed to Albert Einstein Medical Center where he was pronounced dead.
This shooting happened about two blocks away from where gunmen had a shootout Thursday night, unloading as many as 40 rounds along Ashmead Street. Bullets hit four people, the youngest being a 6-year-old boy who was struck 10 times as he rode by in his godfather's car. A $10,000 reward is being offered in that shooting.
A standard $20,000 reward is offered for information leading to an arrest and conviction in each of the shooting death cases. Detectives haven't yet released motives in Friday's shootings.
Homicides spiked by 112 percent since last month with 34 people having been killed, according to Philadelphia Police data. (The department complies statistics weekly and compares crime data on a rolling 28 day period.)
The data doesn't break down the number of people who died at the end of a gun barrel, but aggravated assaults with a gun are also up 10 percent month-over-month.
Police Commissioner Richard Ross speaking Friday morning about the shooting that injured the child said the public needs to notify police when they see or hear about illegal gun activity happening in their neighborhoods.
"You make not think this stuff affects you personally in your neighborhood but this proves that it does. When you hear about groups that are violent you got to pick up that phone and let us know because you never know when an innocent person can get hurt and for certain, the six-year-old boy is," he said. "So you got to give us a call because we don’t have crystal balls."
Anyone with information about these crimes or any others can contact Philadelphia Police's anonymous tipline at 215.686.TIPS.
