A family was having a graduation party when police say two groups opened fire from opposite ends of the street in Kingsessing. Four victims were shot, one of them fatally. The other three remain in the hospital, one in critical condition and two who are stable. NBC10’s Karen Hua has the latest and spoke with a neighbor.
A teenager is dead after a quadruple shooting in the Kingsessing section of Southwest Philadelphia on Saturday, according to police.
Police say that multiple 911 calls led them to the scene of a shooting that happened just after 6:30 p.m. on the 1000 block of South 51st Street.
A group of males is believed to have opened fire in the direction of a home where people were gathered to celebrate a graduation, according to Philadelphia Police Inspector D F Pace.
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Three of the victims in the shooting are teenagers and one is in his early twenties, officials said.
An 18-year-old was shot one time in the face, police said. He was taken to a nearby hospital where he died from his injury just before 7 p.m.
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A second victim was a 17-year-old who was shot four times throughout his body, according to officials. He was taken to a nearby hospital before being transported to a children's hospital where he is listed in critical condition.
The youngest victim is a 16-year-old boy who was shot twice in his left forearm, police said. He was taken to a nearby hospital where he is in stable condition.
A 22-year-old was shot one time in his left leg, according to police. Officers took him to a nearby hospital where he is currently listed in stable condition.
Investigators discovered at least 27 spent shell casings with about 20 on the west side of the street and six or seven on the east side, Pace said.
"Working and I heard a round of gunshots that happened very, very quickly and then there was a pause and then there were a couple of just individual shots," Morgan Andrews, a neighbor on the street, said.
Homes, as well as parked cars, on both sides of the street were struck by gunfire, according to Pace.
Andrews said the mother of the home that was hit is their block captain and very active in violence prevention.
"Yeah, my block captain, Edie Owens-Hightower, has been in this neighborhood for a really long time, lived in that house for a really long time," Andrews said. "Really active in the rec center just two blocks away and just organizing all kinds of block cleanups and lots of things, lots of different ways for people to be involved. So, it really surprises me that anyone would do anything bad to that family."
The 18-year-old who died was Owens-Hightower's great great nephew, the family told NBC10.
It remains unclear if any of the victims were involved in the shooting, Pace said.
The scene is currently being held by police as the investigation is ongoing. One weapon has been recovered.
This is a developing story. Check back here for updates.
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