A teen boy was injured in a shooting near a religious event at Temple University on Sunday. It was one of three separate shootings involving teenagers in Philadelphia over a three-day span. NBC10’s Lili Zheng has the details.
A 15-year-old boy was injured after a shooting near Temple University’s campus on Sunday afternoon.
The shooting happened just after 1 p.m., according to the Philadelphia Police Department. The 15-year-old was shot in the left forearm by the intersection of Broad Street and Cecil B. Moore and taken to Temple University Hospital, where police said he was placed in stable condition.
According to Temple Police, preliminary reports and video footage they have reviewed “indicate that a group of juveniles were in the area for a religious festival when an individual fired a gun, striking a juvenile."
Brianna Pittman of Philadelphia was at the Liacouras Center on Sunday where festivities for Eid al-Fitr were taking place to mark the end of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan.
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“It started this morning. We had two prayer sessions. Following the prayer session, it’s a celebration where everyone got to celebrate with the kids. We had bouncy houses inside,” Pittman said. “What’s happening out here is not a direct correlation to what was going on inside. Honestly, what’s out here is just a gathering of…in my opinion, just unsupervised kids…and they’re out here being you know, being mischievous, doing what teenagers do but it had nothing to do with what’s occurring inside.”
Naru Salahuddin and his family were also in North Philadelphia on Sunday for the festivities.
“We’re supposed to come together as a brother and sisterhood, family,” Salahuddin said. “That type of activity that we’re hearing, we don’t want that. We shouldn’t have that. We should come here to have fun.”
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Salahuddin told NBC10 it was upsetting as a parent to hear of any cases involving teenagers and gun violence.
“You should be able to go out freely. They should be able to what kids do. Kids should play, you know? You shouldn’t have to walk in fear or you know, you got to watch around themselves like…what’s going on? Or hear any type of violence. That’s not what Philly is about. Shouldn’t be about that,” he said. “I would say get it together. That’s all I want. There’s other ways to solve a problem other than violence.”
Salahuddin’s wife Ashley said she’s cautious on where her children are allowed to be without their parents.
“I don’t allow my boys to go outside. If I do allow them to go outside, it’s not the area at all,” she said.
Like others, Pittman said she hopes the younger generation will think twice before resorting to violence.
“I really think that it’s just a lack of supervision,” she said, referring to the shooting by Cecil B. Moore Avenue on Sunday. “A bunch of teenagers that’s out here. I get that they want to have fun and they want to socialize, but it’s still about having mutual respect for everyone and being cautious of those around.”
On Sunday, the Germantown Masjid addressed the shooting on social media, asking parents or guardians of those involved to contact the mosque to come to a resolution.
“Sadly, it appears that some of those involved were raised as Muslims. Therefore, we should not hastily blame new Muslims or use this incident to discourage others from embracing this beautiful religion,” a caption on its Instagram post read.
As of Sunday, police have not announced any arrests or recovered any weapons related to the shooting by Cecil B. Moore and Broad Street.
Sunday's incident was one of four separate shootings in Philadelphia over a three-day span that left a teen girl dead and five other teens hurt.
The violence began on Friday, March 28, at 11:40 p.m. when police responded to reports of a shooting on the 7000 block of Elmwood Avenue. When they arrived, they found a teen girl suffering from a gunshot wound to the chest. She was pronounced dead at the scene at 11:58 p.m. Police have not yet revealed her identity and no arrests have been made in the shooting.
Then on Saturday, March 29, around 5 p.m., a triple shooting injured three teen boys on the 900 block of East Upsal Street. A 15-year-old boy was shot in the chest, a 16-year-old boy suffered a graze wound to the face and a 14-year-old boy was shot in the thigh.
All three teens were taken to the hospital. The 15-year-old boy is in critical condition while the two other teens are stable. Police have not announced any charges in the shooting but said all three shooting victims were also suspects who are being held in custody at the hospital.
Then, late on Sunday night, two teenage boys were shot in Northeast Philadelphia's Oxford Circle section. The boys were listed in stable condition while getting treatment.
There are additional resources for people or communities that have endured gun violence in Philadelphia. Further information can be found here.
