At least three people died and 11 others were injured on Saturday night (4) amid a shooting attack in the US city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, local police said. The episode took place on the outskirts of South Street, a busy area full of restaurants and bars.
Inspector DF Pace told reporters that security agents were patrolling the area when they observed several individuals shooting through the crowd. At least 14 people were reportedly taken to a nearby hospital, but three have already arrived dead.
Police shot one of the gunmen, Pace said, but it was not possible to identify whether the man, who later managed to escape, was injured. According to local media, no one has been arrested so far.
Also according to the inspector, two weapons and numerous capsules were found at the scene, but the police had to wait until dawn to review surveillance camera footage from stores in the area and thus try to identify the shooters.
The new shooting comes amid a string of similar episodes in the US in recent weeks. The Gun Violence Archive organization has reported nearly 240 mass shootings since the beginning of this year. The number of deaths caused by photographic weapons, between homicides and suicides, has surpassed 18,500, show data released this Sunday (5).
Last Thursday (2), two attacks were reported. The first took place in the parking lot of a church in Ames, Iowa, during a mass. At least two women died, and the shooter killed himself afterwards. The second, in turn, took place in Racine, Wisconsin, during a wake — two people died.
Earlier, on Wednesday (1st), a gunman killed four people in Tulsa, also in Oklahoma. According to the police the following day, the man was targeting a doctor who had operated on his back.
Eight days earlier, a massacre at a Texas school ended with 19 children and 2 teachers dead. The author, an 18-year-old, carried an AR-15 rifle and, before being responsible for the worst massacre at a children’s educational institution in the country in a decade, he also shot his grandmother.
The case in the city of Uvalde came days after another episode in Buffalo, New York, in which ten people died in a supermarket. The author had racist motives and should be indicted for domestic terrorism. After the attack in Texas, President Joe Biden gave an emotional speech in which he criticized the pro-gun lobby in the country and defended the control on access to weapons.
All the episodes have increased pressure on the US Congress and President Biden to propose and debate bills that limit access to weapons or, at the very least, impose a requirement that the purchaser present a background, such as a police record.
