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A drive-by shooting in a Philadelphia neighborhood on the Fourth of July left a 19-year-old man dead and injured seven others, while police in Chicago were investigating two mass shootings that wounded 14 people early Friday.
No arrests were made in any of the mass shootings, police said.
The Fourth of July historically is one of the nation’s deadliest days of the year. A flurry of shootings around the Fourth of July a year ago left more than a dozen people dead and over 60 wounded. And a year before that, a mass shooting at a Fourth of July parade left seven people dead near Chicago.
Violence and mass shootings often increase in the summer months, with more people gathering for social events, teens out of school and hotter temperatures.
Four teens among those injured in Philadelphia shooting
Around 11:30 p.m. Thursday, Philadelphia officers on routine patrol saw someone lying on a street and realized they had been shot. Additional officers soon arrived and they found more victims.
Police said the victims were gathered together when a man riding in a passing car fired several shots at the group. It’s not yet known what sparked the shooting.
The wounded victims — three men, three juvenile males and a juvenile female, who ranged in age from 14 to 23 — were being treated at hospitals for various injuries that were not considered life-threatening, and all were in stable condition.
Separate gun incidents in Chicago wound 14
A day after a Fourth of July shooting killed two women and an 8-year-old boy in Chicago, police were investigating two other mass shootings that wounded 14 people in the city early Friday.
Chicago police said eight people were shot in the city’s Little Italy neighborhood shortly after midnight during an exchange of gunfire between two people who fled the scene. All of the shooting victims — five women and three men ranging in age from 18 to 74 — were reported in good or fair condition.
About 90 minutes later, a shooting in Chicago’s Austin neighborhood wounded six people — three men and two women ages 18 to 25, and a 15-year-old boy, police said. All six were reported in good and fair condition. Police said preliminary findings suggest that shooting also involved an exchange of gunfire between two people who ran from the scene.
Friday’s shootings followed a Thursday morning shooting in a home on Chicago’s south side that killed two women, ages 45 and 24, and wounded three boys, ages 8, 7 and 5. The 8-year-old boy died from his wounds later Thursday, police said.
Deputy Chief Don Jerome said two vehicles pulled up and multiple people got out and fired shots at the home. Multiple shell casings from both a rifle and a handgun were found at the scene, he said.
Police continue investigating all three shootings and have announced no arrests.
