As the Biden administration announces new gun violence reduction efforts, city officials are hopeful it will help reduce crime in Philadelphia. NBC10’s Lauren Mayk spoke to city officials and community leaders about what they want to see from the new initiative.
Police released surveillance video of gunmen shooting and killing two men and injuring the 3-year-old son of one of the victims in a daytime triple shooting in West Philadelphia over the weekend.
The video shows a 23-year-old man and his 3-year-old son walking along the 1600 block of North 55th Street at 2:22 p.m. on Saturday. As they begin to step into a car, a white SUV pulls up near them and at least two gunmen get out and open fire.
Both the 23-year-old man and a second 23-year-old man were shot multiple times throughout their bodies. The 3-year-old boy was also shot three times in his right leg.
All three victims were taken to Presbyterian Hospital. The two men were pronounced dead while the child was placed in stable condition.
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Police said they later found the suspects' vehicle but they continue to search for the two gunmen.
The incident was one of two triple shootings that occurred in Philadelphia on Saturday.
After the first shooting, police commissioner Danielle Outlaw noted that many began the day celebrating the designation of Juneteenth as a new federal holiday commemorating the end of slavery but “we again found ourselves lamenting as an otherwise beautiful afternoon had been sullied with gun violence.”
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The surveillance video of the first shooting was shown during a news conference on the city’s gun violence on Wednesday.
“How do we have police on the scene when those two guys spot the guy they want to kill or shoot and jump out of the car,” Mayor Jim Kenney asked. “I can’t tell you why people turn to crime other than the circumstances that they find themselves in and we are working hard to change the circumstances.”
Philadelphia is on pace to have one of its deadliest years on record.
As of Tuesday night, at least 261 people had been killed, according to data from the Philadelphia Police Department. Furthermore, PPD statistics showed 1,740 shooting incidents as of the week ending June 20. The Philadelphia Controller’s Office, meanwhile, showed 787 people had been wounded and 226 killed by gunfire as of Tuesday.
Officials also announced Philly will be among the 15 cities using federal dollars to join a national initiative that would see participating municipalities collaborate on violence intervention strategies.
The initiative comes after the Treasury Department announced that $350 billion of the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan can be used in community violence intervention programs. It would also allow participating municipalities to use the money to hire more police officers.
Over the next 18 months, President Joe Biden’s administration will convene leaders and community members from the selected cities to “facilitate peer-to-peer learning, and provide technical assistance,” the White House said in announcing the strategy.
Mayor Kenney said that his administration was still reviewing the new federal violence prevention initiative. However, he welcomed provisions in the plan that would target illegal guns.
“What we need as cities is the help from the federal government when it comes to controlling the flow of guns and, frankly, the flow of drugs,” Kenney said. “Certainly our police can handle on the street the day to day stuff that needs to be handled, but when the guns are flowing into cities across the country, there’s got to be something the federal government can do, and I’m hoping that they do that.”
