Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle Parker, Police Commissioner Kevin Bethel, District Attorney Larry Krasner and others discuss Monday efforts being made to keep deadly gun violence down in Philadelphia despite a violent weekend where at least four people were shot and killed.
After about two dozen people were shot and at least four died in a series of shootings from Center City to Germantown to Northeast Philadelphia over the weekend, Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle Parker emotionally reacted to the gun violence.
"It pains me," the first-term Democrat said at a Monday, Dec. 16, 2024, news conference near the ice rink outside City Hall where three teens were shot Friday. "Our city grieves their loss" she said of the people killed in other shootings.
The gun violence started when the three teens were shot on the late afternoon of Friday, Dec. 13, 2024, at Dilworth Park next to City Hall in the heart of Philadelphia and continued through Sunday, Dec. 15, 2024, when a person was shot in Pennypack Park in the Northeast.
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There are additional resources for people or communities that have endured gun violence in Philadelphia. Further information can be found here.
In total, at least 25 people were shot -- three of them killed -- in at least 11 separate shootings from Friday through Sunday.
Deadly shootings over the weekend
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The deadly shootings included a Friday the 13th triple shooting along Hansberry Street, where one of the shooting victims later died, police said.
On Saturday night, Dec. 14, 2024, double shooting along the 600 block of North 32nd Street in the Mantua neighborhood.
Several gunmen targeted a man sitting in a car, killing him, Philadelphia Police Inspector D.F. Pace said. A bystander leaving a nearby house was struck in the leg.
Early on Sunday morning, a man was killed and two other people were hurt when gunfire erupted at Henny's Sports bar at North 29th Street and Chalmers Avenue in North Philadelphia, police said.
Later Sunday morning in North Philadelphia, five people were shot in a mass shooting near D Street and Wyoming Avenue, police said. A man in his 20s died and several others were hospitalized.
'We have much more work to do' to address deadly gun violence
Mayor Cherelle Parker, Philadelphia Police Commissioner Kevin Bethel, District Attorney Larry Krasner and other city leaders discussed their plans for continuing to address the deadly violence at Monday's news conference.
Despite the violent weekend, homicides in Philadelphia are down significantly, about 37% year-to-year, with 251 reported as of Monday, according to police data. That's the lowest homicide count this late in the year in a decade.
The number of shooting victims is also down about 36% from last year, Parker said, while noting "it's still no enough."
"The numbers don't mean a damn thing," an emotional Parker said, while reiterating her administration's "No. 1 priority" of a commitment to public safety. "We can't police our way out of what's happening now, prevention and intervention are extremely important."
"We cannot and will not rest until every resident in every neighborhood feels safe in their homes, going to school or walking in their community," Parker said. "We have much more work to do and we're going to do that work everyday with our police department, with our office of public safety, with our community partners."
Parker said she has empowered Bethel and the entire police department to do whatever they constitutionally can to combat crime.
Bethel said that the weekend violence is not a norm and that police are upping their presence in Center City and other neighborhoods.
"We are having one of the best years we've had in over a decade," Bethel said. "We will not allow anyone to deter us from our mission."
Democratic DA Krasner said that the shootings over the weekend, "were completely unacceptable," but that overall gun violence continues to be on a decline in Philadelphia for the past few years.
"This weekend did not define who we were and who we are as a city," Bethel said.
The three victims shot at Dilworth Park Friday were all teens, police said.
To date, children have made up around 12% of the more than 1,000 shootings in Philadelphia in 2024, according to data compiled by the Philadelphia City Controller's Office.
Bethel, Parker and others said that police will continue to monitor kids after school hours as they look to curtail juvenile violence.
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