5 Boys Arrested After Gunshots in Center City Philadelphia

Five boys were arrested after someone opened fire in Center City Sunday afternoon, Philadelphia’s police commissioner said.

Police officers posted in the area of 10th and Market streets also recovered two guns after running toward the shots when someone fired several bullets around 5:45 p.m., Philadelphia Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw said.

The officers arrested one boy near at 9th and Chestnut streets. That boy dropped a bag with a gun, Outlaw said. Officers recovered a second gun with an extended magazine after stopping another boy in the area, she said.

In all, five boys were arrested, Outlaw said. No injuries were reported.

“Those who take part in violent behavior will be apprehended; our residents and visitors will not be intimidated, and ours officers will not be deterred,” the commissioner said in a tweet.

The incident was just one of several shootings in Philadelphia Sunday afternoon – and it wasn’t the only one involving minors.

The PPD said a 17-year-old boy was recovering at a hospital after being shot four times in the buttocks and hip around 7:26 p.m. along the 13000 block of South 49th Street.

At least three others were shot Sunday afternoon and evening, according to the PPD. At least one of those victims – a 19-year-old man shot eight times in the parking lot of a gas station on the 4600 block of Lancaster Avenue – died.

Philadelphia Police Department statistics show at least 364 killings this year as of Sept. 3, a 1% rise from the same time in 2021, which ended up being the year with the most homicides since the city first began keeping record in the 1960s.

Most of those killings have come by way of gunfire. The city controller’s office lists at least 337 fatal shootings as of Sept. 1. It also shows at least 1,275 nonfatal shootings.