6 dead, many injured after shootings in Philadelphia and Chattanooga
Shootings overnight left six people dead in Philadelphia and Chattanooga, Tenn., continuing a spate of deadly gun attacks as Congress prepares to take up gun-control legislation.
Shortly before midnight Saturday, police officers on patrol in a popular nightlife area in Philadelphia heard gunfire and saw “several active shooters” firing into a crowd, Inspector D.F. Pace of the Philadelphia Police Department said at a news conference early Sunday.
Three fatalities have been confirmed, two related to gunshot wounds and one related to injuries sustained after a person was struck by a vehicle. Several victims remain in critical condition after what police described as a chaotic and harrowing situation, as hundreds of people were out on a pleasant summer evening.
An officer fired several shots at one of the gunmen as he was shooting, Philadelphia Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw said during a news conference Sunday afternoon. The man dropped his weapon and fled when he was fired upon, the commissioner added.
About three hours later, at 2:42 a.m. Sunday, police in Chattanooga responded to reports of shots fired near a nightclub. They found 14 gunshot victims and three people who had been hit by vehicles that “were attempting to flee the scene,” Chattanooga Police Chief Celeste Murphy said in a briefing Sunday.
Murphy said three people were killed, two by gunshots and one after being struck by a vehicle. She said the investigation was ongoing. “Multiple shooters” were involved, she said, but police did not have anyone in custody.
In Philadelphia, police were on the hunt for the shooters, Pace said.
The incident began at 11:31 p.m. after two officers heard gunfire, Outlaw said. When they arrived at the scene, they saw several people with gunshot wounds and began administering first aid.
Police believe there was some sort of physical altercation between two men who started shooting at each other. Both were hit and one was killed, Outlaw said. In all, five different guns were fired, police said, not including the one discharged by the police officer on the scene.
Outlaw said the two other people who were killed and several of the wounded were “uninvolved in the initial altercation and were innocent bystanders.”
Of the 14 people who were injured and brought to hospitals, three — two men, ages 22 and 34, and a woman, 27 — were pronounced dead on arrival, police told reporters. The 11 wounded ranged in age from 17 to 69, Outlaw said, and their conditions ranged from stable to critical.