A suspect is in custody in the shooting last Saturday of an 11-month-old boy in North Philadelphia, police said Thursday afternoon.
Yazeem Jenkins was last reported by police to be in "very, very, very critical condition" after he was shot Saturday night while in the backseat of a car driving on North Seventh Street.
The identity of the suspect has not been released, and police said he has not been formally charged.
"This remains a highly active and fluid investigation," a city police spokeswoman wrote in an email.
Gunmen struck two babies in separate shootings less then 24 hours apart over the weekend, stunning police officials and Mayor Jim Kenney.
The mayor said at a press conference that the shootings of Jenkins and Nikolette Rivera, 2, who died from bullets fired into the house on North Water Street in Kensington on Sunday, made him feel like the city is "losing ground" in the battle against gun violence.
Jenkins was struck four times by bullets: once in the head, once in the neck and twice in the buttocks, police said. He is not expected to fully recover from his wounds, a detective told reporters Monday.
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In each shooting, police have said they believe they know the likely motive or intended target of the gunfire. The children were not the targets, police said.
"We had a horrible weekend, this weekend when it comes to violence," Kenney said. "You feel like you’re making progress in this city and this weekend happens and a couple weekends ago, it happened again, and you just feel like you’re losing, losing ground."
Rivera was shot once in the back of the head while her mother was shot once in the right side of the head and once in the back. A contractor, who was doing work inside the home at the time, was also shot once in the stomach.
The girl was pronounced dead at the scene shortly before 4 p.m. The child's mother and the man were both taken to Temple University Hospital. The man is in critical condition while the woman is stable.
Another shooting occurred five minutes earlier on 400 East Clearfield Street, which is about a half a mile away. No one was hurt during that shooting. Coulter said they found evidence that a rifle was used in the Water Street shooting while both a rifle and a handgun may have been used in the Clearfield Street shooting. Police have not yet confirmed whether the two incidents are related.
The city is offering $30,000 rewards in both cases.
