A man was shot and killed just after 2 p.m. in North Philadelphia Tuesday, in the second murder of the day and the 355th murder of the year in Philadelphia.
The man, who has not been identified, was shot in the back and the arm in the 4000 block of N. 7th Street. He was taken to Temple University Hospital and pronounced dead at 2:28 p.m.
Police have not made an arrest in the case.
The shooting followed one on Germantown Avenue earlier New Year's Eve, in which a man was gunned down feet from Temple University Hospital. The two fatal shootings on New Year's Eve added to a grim total for the city: 355 murders this year, more than any year since 2007, when the city had 391 murders.
It's only one measure of crime; aggravated assaults with a gun are up 13% in Philadelphia this year through Dec. 29, according to the Philadelphia Police Department's weekly crime statistics tracker. Rapes, however, are down 9% and residential burglaries are down 7%.
But the homicide number gets attention, and it is a grim challenge for Chief Danielle Outlaw, who was named Philly's top cop Monday and starts the job Feb. 10.
"I will work relentlessly to reduce crime in Philadelphia, particularly the insidious gun violence that plagues too many of our communities," Outlaw said in her first press conference on Monday.
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Outlaw takes over a 6,500-officer department that has weathered a series of scandals around racial, sexual and gender discrimination in the past year. She'll also be tasked with combating a recent increase in violent crime including homicides, aggravated assaults and robberies with a gun.
There are additional resources for people or communities that have endured gun violence. Further information can be found here.
