What to Know
- A large police presence blocked off busy streets in Center City Philadelphia Tuesday after a shooting in a high-rise apartment.
- A man on the 18th floor of the Sterling Home Apartments fired a shot out of a window then took his own life, police say.
- Residents in the building and workers at neighboring business were urged to avoid windows during the barricade.
A man is dead after firing a gunshot out of a window and then barricading himself inside an apartment at a Center City Philadelphia high-rise Tuesday afternoon, police said.
Philadelphia police rushed into the Sterling Apartment Homes along JFK Boulevard at 18th Street around 1 p.m., Staff Inspector Sekou Kinebrew said.
A 66-year-old man who answered the door of a corner apartment on the 18th floor said that his roommate, a man in his 30s, had fired shots during an argument with another man in a bedroom.
Police eventually entered the bedroom around 1:50 p.m. to find the man in his 30s dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, Kinebrew said. A .40-caliber Smith & Wesson was found next to the man.
SUICIDE PREVENTION HELP: The National Suicide Prevention Hotline (1-800-273-8255) is open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Police also discovered that prior to shooting himself, the man fired a shot out the window that struck a banister. No others were injured, police said.
Sterling management made an announcement over the building loudspeaker telling residents on the 15th floor and above to not go onto their balconies and to stay in their apartments during the incident.
Workers at the businesses on the ground floor were evacuated from the building, staffer Selena Caraballo said.
People working in the neighboring Comcast Technology Center, including NBC10 and Telemundo 62, were asked to avoid windows on the south side of the tower.
Around 2 p.m., an announcement was made in the Comcast Technology Center that the incident was resolved and the all clear had been given.
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Kinebrew said police would like to speak to the third man who had been in the apartment at the time of the incident. Kinebrew said that man isn't believed to have done anything illegal, but they would like to talk to him.
