The three victims were shot on the 1600 block of North 55th Street about 2:20 p.m. and were taken in a private vehicle to Penn Presbyterian Medical Center in West Philadelphia, where the two men, who had been shot multiple times throughout the body, were pronounced dead, police said, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported.
The child, who had been shot three times in the right leg, was listed in stable condition, police said.
A weapon has been recovered, but no arrest has been made.
“It is especially disturbing and sickening when the victims are among our most vulnerable,” Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw said in a statement.
“We should never tolerate violence against our children", the commissioner added.
The shooting was the third to occur Saturday, following nonfatal incidents involving one victim each in the city’s East Germantown and Ogontz sections. Shootings are up 27% year-to-date compared to 2020, and homicides are on a record-breaking pace, up 37% over last year.
Yet a fourth incident — in which three people were wounded — occurred about five hours later and a few blocks away, in the 5900 block of Lansdowne Avenue. Police said that the victims were a 36-year-old woman and an 18- and a 21-year-old male. All three were reported in stable condition at Presbyterian Hospital. Police said a man was “detained” in connection with the shootings.
Police said that two gunmen fired “over fifty shots” at a crowd of 30 attending a graduation party,” according to a report by NBC10.
Police Saturday night were trying to determine whether the incidents were related, a police spokesperson said.
In her statement, Outlaw lamented the violence, which she noted had occurred on the day that Juneteenth was being celebrated for the first time as a federally recognized holiday.
“While holiday celebrations will continue throughout the city, our investigators will work tirelessly to bring justice to all of those affected by the scourge of gun violence,” she said.
RHM/PR