Violent Mother’s Day kills 4, wounds others

Authorities say a violent Mother’s Day weekend in Philadelphia that included several multiple shootings claimed the lives of seven people and left more than two dozen others wounded.

Police said five people were shot in Olney in north Philadelphia shortly before 4:30 p.m. Sunday. A 17-yearold youth and a 23-year-old man who were found on a porch with multiple gunshot wounds were pronounced dead at the scene. Three other men were stable. Police believe the shooting was retaliation for an earlier incident.

In another part of north Philadelphia three hours earlier, three victims were found in a car after shots were fired from another vehicle that pulled alongside. An 18-yearold man shot in the head died at the scene and a 19-year-old man was taken to a hospital in extremely critical condition and died early Sunday. Another man was stable.

Shortly before midnight Sunday in Upper Kensington, a 26-year-old man standing in the doorway of a deli grocery was shot and killed by two males.

A 33-year-old woman and 26-year-old woman who were in the store were hit by gunfire and listed in stable condition. Police believe the shooting was drug-related.

A 31-year-old man was shot to death Saturday morning in northeast Philadelphia’s Frankford neighborhood in a suspected robbery. A 20-year-old man died Saturday night in a north Philadelphia shooting believed to be part of a cycle of retaliation shootings in the north Philadelphia area.

Other gunfire included shots fired early Sunday at a man and woman leaving a southwest Philadelphia tavern; both were taken to hospitals and the man was listed in critical condition. Several people were also injured in stabbings over the weekend.

Mayor Jim Kenney said in a statement Sunday that he was “devastated by the unspeakable violence that occurred this weekend across our city.”

Kenney said he had proposed an additional $18.7 million for anti-violence initiatives during the next fiscal year and planned a $70 million increase over the next five years for “proven violence reduction strategies.”