PHILADELPHIA: Four men were killed and two boys injured when a gunman wearing a bulletproof vest resorted to random fire on the streets of Philadelphia on Monday night, in the latest incident of gun violence in the United States, police said.
It was not a targeted killing as the victims seemed to be shot at random, also no connection could immediately be discerned between them and the shooter.
The shooting incident was spread over several city blocks in Philadelphia’s southwestern neighbourhood of Kingsessing. Police officers responding to the shooting, gave chase to the suspect as he kept on firing continuously. Later, the shooter was arrested in a nearby alley after he surrendered, Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw said, while addressing a press conference.
"At this point all we know is that this person decided to leave their home and target individuals,” Outlaw said.
She informed that he had on a bulletproof vest, was carrying an “AR-type rifle,” a multiple number of magazines, a handgun and a police scanner.
According to Police Commissioner Outlaw, police officers were called to the scene of shooting at around 8:30 p.m.(local time), and they came to know about reports of shots fired coming in from the Kingsessing area.
On arrival at the scene of the shooting, police located some gunshot victims. Even as the officers were attending to the victims, they heard sounds of more gunfire, Outlaw said.
The suspected shooter involved in the incident was identified as a man who is aged around 40 years. Another person was also taken into custody, but more details were not immediately available.
The scene was described by Outlaw as covering an area of two by four city blocks and she added that dozens of shell casings from the rifle were found in the area.
“At this point you can see there are several scenes out here," Outlaw said. "We're canvassing the area to get as much as we can, to identify witnesses, to identify where cameras are located and to do everything to figure out the why,” the police commissioner said.
The ages of the men shot dead ranged from 20 to 59, while the two hospitalized victims are boys, ages 2 and 13, it was informed.
They were said to be in a stable condition. There appeared to be no connection between the shooter and the victims, Outlaw said.
The latest shooting incident occurred a day after eruption of gunfire at a weekend holiday party in Baltimore, about 160 kilometers to the southwest of Philadelphia. The shooting there killed two people and wounded 28 others. Those wounded in the shooting were aged from 13 to 32, and more than half of the victims were minors, according to officials.
The Philadelphia shooting is the country's 29th mass killing that happened in 2023, according to a national database.
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