While the world’s attention was focused on the carnage in Colorado after a gunman opened fire during a midnight showing of “The Dark Knight Rises” early Friday morning, Philadelphia saw a violent weekend of its own.
Nine people were struck by gunfire in five separate shootings – two of the wounded were killed and two others are in critical condition.
An 11-year-old child was shot at 11th and Norris streets in North Philadelphia shortly after 10 p.m.Friday. According to multiple reports, the boy heard gunshots and ran outside to protect his 2-year-old brother. The 10-year-old was grazed in the leg and is in stable condition at St. Christopher’s Hospital/.
A man, 35, was shot in the head on the street outside a home on the 800 block of East Woodlawn Avenue in East Germantown around 9:45 p.m. Saturday. The yet-unidentified victim was rushed to Albert Einstein Medical Center, where he died shortly after 10 p.m.
Early this morning, five more people were shot when a man opened fire during a Brewerytown house party on the 2900 block of West Thompson Street around 2:30 a.m. One man, 24, was shot in the thigh and groin, a second man, 25, and a woman, also, 25, were each shot in the thigh. All are at stable condition at Hahnemann University Hospital.
A fourth victim, a 25-year-old woman, was shot in the buttocks and foot and is in guarded condition at Temple University Hospital and a fifth person, a 25-year-old man, was shot in the abdomen and was transferred from St. Joseph’s Hospital to Temple University Hospital, where he is in critical condition.
Police around 5 a.m. discovered the body of an Asian male, 22, shot twice inside a residence on the 5100 block of North 6th Street in Olney by a known gunman. He died at the scene.
Also early this morning, a woman, 41, was shot in the left side and back on the 2100 block of North Marvine Street in North Philadelphia. She is in critical condition at Temple University Hospital.
No arrests have yet been made in any of the shootings.
The number of homicide victims has this year so far reached 194, which is still down from the number on this date during the benchmark year of 2007. Still, the bodies are piling up at a steadily rising pace – the current total of those killed represents a 20 percent increase from the same date in 2009, a 13 percent increase from the same date in 2010 and a nearly nine percent increase from the same date last year.
