Man Shot While Driving Car Among 4 Dead in 1 Violent Night in Philly

Philadelphia’s gun violence crisis took the lives of at least four people -- including a person driving a car at the time -- Wednesday night in several different neighborhoods across the city – setting 2022 up to be the deadliest year on city record.

Police said six people were shot in at least five shootings – from Port Richmond to Germantown – within a five-hour span.

In North Philadelphia, police said the gunman in a deadly shooting appeared to be acting in self-defense.

Around 6 p.m., police said a 27-year-old confronted another man and pulled a gun near 27^th and Taney streets. The other man had his own gun, and shot and killed him. Investigators said the shooter had a license to carry and is cooperating with police.

Around 9:45 p.m., in the Frankford section of the city, a driver crashed his car after his passenger shot him in the head, killing him, police said.

The shooting and crash happened near Torresdale Avenue and Gillingham Street. Police arrived to find the driver shot in the head inside the crashed burgundy 2011 Nissan Altima with the engine still running and the tires spinning.

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Witnesses and police investigators said it appeared the passenger shot the 25-year-old driver as they went along nearby Josephine Street.

“The driver, having been shot in the head, then lost control of the vehicle and at a high rate of speed -- according to witnesses -- then crashed into a utility pole,” Philadelphia Police Inspector DF Pace said. “It appears that the driver still had his foot on the gas and the tires on the front of the vehicle actually exploded after continuing to try to move forward. The friction between the tires and the ground caused them to basically disintegrate.”

Witnesses told police they saw a man get out of the car and run off, Pace said.

Right around the same time, two men in their 20s were hit as gunfire rang out near an elementary school and playground in the Kensington neighborhood, police said.

Officers received several 911 calls for a shooting on the 3100 block of Rorer Street. Philadelphia Police Chief Inspector Scott Small said a 26-year-old man died after being shot in the shoulder, and another 24-year-old man was hospitalized after being shot in the leg.

Small added that investigators found 16 bullet casings near Lewis Elkin Elementary School.

In Germantown, a 28-year-old man died when he was shot on the 200 block of Zeralda Street. The victim, later identified as Nathan Ervin, was hit at least three times in his head and once in the back shortly before 7 p.m., Small said.

And in Port Richmond, just after 10 p.m., a 27-year-old man was shot in the face inside of a home on the 2100 block of East Clearfield Street, police said. He was listed in extremely critical condition at the hospital.

Police said that man was shot after a man knocked on the door to ask if a motorbike outside was for sale. A woman told the man it wasn't and then he tried to shoot that woman, but his gun jammed. The 27-year-old man then came to the door to confront the other man and was shot at least three times.

Police have yet to make arrests in the cases, Small said.

As of Thursday morning, there were at least 325 homicides in Philadelphia in 2022, according to Philadelphia police data. That outpaces by 1% what we saw at this same time last year, which wound up being the deadliest on record in the city.