PHILADELPHIA — Philadelphia police on Tuesday were attempting to determine who fired a gun and from where during Monday night’s Independence Day celebrations, in a shooting that injured two police officers and caused the panicked evacuation of thousands from the Benjamin Franklin Parkway.
Chief Inspector Frank Vanore said detectives “really don’t have a clear picture of where the bullets came from.” Officers stationed around the Parkway and the Philadelphia Museum of Art for the Wawa Welcome America Festival did not hear shots or see muzzle flashes before the officers were hit, he said.
Detectives were investigating the possibility that the two officers were struck by stray bullets from celebratory gunfire, potentially fired from some distance away, officials said. In an internal email, Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw told the police force that the motive and location of the shooter or shooters remained unknown. Later, Mayor Jim Kenney said in an interview with WCAU-TV in Philadelphia that the shots had come from outside the event site.
