A 54-year-old woman was killed after being shot in the neck in West Philadelphia during what police described as a chaotic scene that included a ransacked home and a car with a bullet hole nearby.
Surveillance cameras showed a group of 10-15 people gathered in the area of 46th Street and Fairmount Avenue just after 11 p.m. Thursday, Philadelphia Police Department Chief Inspector Scott Small said. The video didn’t capture the shooting, but it showed some people fleeing and others tending to the collapsed victim, he said.
Police didn’t recover any ballistic evidence, but witnesses reported three gunshots, Small said.
When police officers arrived, they found the woman – who lived about half a mile from the scene – bleeding “very heavily” from at least one gunshot to the neck, he said. Medics rushed her to Penn Presbyterian Medical Center, where she later died.
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Video also showed a car pull up near 46th Street just before the gunfire, Small said. NBC10 cameras later showed that car with its doors open and a bullet hole in the rear passenger window. The people in that vehicle may have witnessed the shooting or may have been involved, Small said.
Near the scene of the shooting was also a house that had been “ransacked.” Inside were broken flatscreen televisions, broken glass and damaged and overturned furniture, the chief inspector said. Investigators believe whatever happened inside that house is related to the shooting, he added.
Detectives also found three cellphones near where the woman was shot, and they’re hoping to use those to track down the shooter or anyone who might have seen the shooting, he said.
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There are additional resources for people or communities that have endured gun violence in Philadelphia. Further information can be found here.
