There Were Nine Shootings in Philly Yesterday. Here’s What We Know About Them

Photo by iStock.com/Rex Wholster

Seemingly every corner of the city was touched by gun violence on Wednesday.

Ten people were shot in nine separate incidents — one of which claimed the lives of two men — in episodes that stretched from South Philly to West Philly to the Northeast, according to Philadelphia police.

We’ll get to the details of each shooting in a moment. First, it’s worth considering what to make of sudden spikes of violence like this one, and another earlier this month that saw six people murdered across the city in the span of just eight hours.

Yeah, it’s still early in the year. But the city has already recorded 60 homicides, which represents a small but noticeable increase from the same point in 2015 and 2014.

After hitting a low of 246 murders in 2013, the annual total has started to creep up again, hitting 280 last year.

But the city’s gun violence problems are more than just numbers on a sheet of paper. Each shooting has a backstory, a narrative of bad choices that the public usually doesn’t fully learn. And those stories don’t end with just one squeeze of the trigger.

“The thing we have to be concerned about is the potential for yesterday’s 10 shootings to manifest in some other number of shootings,” said Scott Charles, the Trauma Outreach Coordinator for Temple University Hospital. “This kind of violence can be exponential.”

Charles also serves as the co-director of Temple’s Cradle to Grave program, which tries to steer at-risk youth away from more episodes of gun violence.

“We have frank conversations about why continuing down this path doesn’t make sense, even on an individual level,” he said.

It’s not an easy sell. Shooting are often resolved with more shootings.

According to police, here’s how Wednesday’s spate of violence unfolded:

1. At 12:10 a.m., a 27-year-old man was shot in once in the buttocks on Summerdale Avenue near Rosalie Street in the Northeast. He was admitted to Einstein Medical Center in critical condition.
2. Police said two 30-year-old men were fatally shot inside a house on Pratt Street near Frankford Avenue in East Frankford at 2:16 p.m. Numerous weapons were found inside the property, but no arrests have been made.
3. At 3:13 p.m., a 22-year-old man was shot once in the thigh at Cecil B. Moore Avenue and Newkirk Street in North Philly. He was admitted to Hahnemann University Hospital in stable condition.
4. Two hours later, a 17-year-old man was shot once in the chest on Arch Street near 63rd in West Philly. He was admitted to Penn Presbyterian Medical Center in critical condition.
5. A 22-year-old man was shot multiple times about 5:30 p.m. on Emily Street near Sixth in South Philly. He was listed in stable condition at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital.
6. A few minutes later, a 24-year-old man was shot once in the armpit and once in the back on Vodges Street near Baltimore Avenue in West Philly. He was admitted to Penn Presbyterian in critical condition. A weapon was found by police at the scene.
7. At 7:43 p.m., a 19-year-old man was shot once in the thigh and once in the calf on Poplar Street near 54th in West Philadelphia. He was listed in stable condition at Penn Presbyterian.
8. Shortly after 8:20 p.m., a 27-year-old man was shot once in the shoulder on 69th Street near Woodland Avenue, and admitted to Penn Presbyterian in critical condition.
9. An 18-year-old man was shot in the thigh on Catharine Street near 13th at 9:04 p.m. He was admitted to Jefferson in stable condition.

As of this morning, no arrests have been made in any of these cases.

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