PHILADELPHIA (CBS) – A teenage girl is dead and at least four other people were injured after a shooting Friday evening in Philadelphia’s Fairmount Park, police said.
Officers were stationed near the corner of 33rd Street and Ridge Avenue in the city’s Strawberry Mansion neighborhood around 11 p.m. after hearing of “pop-up parties by youth and young adults” in the area, Inspector DF Pace said.
Police were breaking up a crowd on 29th Street heading toward Fairmount Park when officers heard gunshots. Officers then found two gunshot victims in the park and rushed them to Temple University Hospital.
Pace said three other victims arrived at Temple linked to this shooting, including a girl believed to be 15 years old. The girl was pronounced dead at the hospital shortly after 11 p.m
After the shots were fired, the children ran in different directions and at least one victim stopped at a nearby gas station for help, Pace said.
Police assume that the four other victims, all men, are also teenagers or young adults. More information about their ages and circumstances was not immediately available.
Police are still investigating what led to the first meeting and the motive for the shooting.
“We don’t know what prompted the shooting, what prompted it or if any of these victims were targeted,” Pace said. “It’s still too early in the investigation.”
Investigators had found 11 bullet casings at the scene at the time Pace spoke.
“Officers were here on the scene… we were certainly aware that on warm evenings when these young people are likely to congregate. And we know for the most part, in general, where they tend to congregate. And we are doing the best we can proactively to keep them safe and enforce the curfew rules,” Pace added.
Municipal Council 2022 passed a bill requiring everyone under the age of 17 to be home by 10 p.m. if they are not with a parent or returning home from work.
