Police say eight Philadelphia high school students waiting to board a city bus after 🅘classes on Wednesday were wo🦹unded by gunshots from suspects who jumped from a car and opened fire, the fourth shooting on the transit system in as many days.
The previous three shootings each involved a fatality. At least one student was critically wounded at the bus stop, a 16𝕴-year-old who was hit nine times, Kevin Bethel, the city’s police commissioner, said at a news conference. The ♈others were in stable condition.
Bethe🦄l said the Northeast High School students, ranging in age from 15 to 17, were waiting for the bus around 3 p.m. when three people emerged from the car, which was waiting at the scene, and fired more than 30 shots𝓡.
Police then received numerous 911 calls about a “mass shooting on the highwa🐻y near Dunkin’ Donuts,” in northeast Philadelphia, according to police spokesperson Tanya🤪 Little.
The injured teens were taken to Einstein Medical Center and Jefferson Torresdale Hospital, according to John Golden, a spokesperson for the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority, or SEPTA. Two buses — a Route 18 bus and a Route 67 bus — were hit by gunfire, but there were no reports of injuries to passengers or the dꩵriver.
Superintendent Tony Watlington Sr. said officials were “absolutely heartbroken and angry that🎃 innocent children walking home from school would be impacted by gun violence, and we agree with the mayor: E༒nough is enough.”
The scene was cordoned off with yellow police tape in the aftermath of the shooting, with dozens of evidence markers lying on the rain-sl🐲icked pavement.
Neighborhood resident Jessica Healy, who was with her 2-year-old daughter, said the area has become more unsafe in recent yea𓂃rs, and she has neighbors whoဣ are already in the process of moving due to previous incidents.
“I think it’s reallyꦛ sad and just dangerous that I don’t even want to walk my daughter out here,𒀰” Healy said.
Another longtime resident, Brenda Keith, said she doesn’t take extraordinary measures to stay safe, other than being aware of her surroundings in case she suddenly needs to get away from trouble. She understands if people don’ꦛt feel safe in the city right now or are uneasy about riding SEPTA, but she’s determined not to let shootings stop her from living her life.
“But we’re not the only city that’s going through this. â€æ I’ve been here a long time and things have g📖otten worse, but that’s the way life is,” Keith said.
Wednesday’s shooting followed shootings the previous three days in which someone was 🔜killed while riding, entering or leaving a SEPTA bus.
Tuesday’s shooting occurr🍨ed around 6:35 p.m., when police said a verbal argument and then a physical fight began. One of the two passengers exited, turned and fired two shots from a 9 mm handgun, hitting a man later identified as 37-year-old Carmelo Drayton. He died shortly afterward at a hospital.
The shooter, who officials said was wearing one of the kinds oꦚf masks not allowed on the transit system, fled. Authorities were investigating possible motive, and no other injuries were reported.
SEPTA’s chief of transit police, Charles Lawson, said the shots were fire🅘d at the victim while the driver was “immediately behind.”
On Monday, a 17-year-old student was killed and four other peopℱle were wounded when gunfire erupted at a bus stop. The victims included two women who were riding on a bus.
And on Sunday, around 11:30 p.m., a 27-year-old man was killed by another pas🐽senger moments after they both got off a bus. Witnesses said the two had ar𝔉gued, but a motive remains under investigation.
No arrests have been made in any of the shootings, Frank Vanore, deputℱy commissioner of the Philadelphia police department, said Wednesday.
While serious crime overall is down along the transportation 🔜system, Lawson said, a pattern that has emerged over the past year and a half is people carrying weapons, usually illegally, getꦐting into an argument and then opening fire. He vowed that officials would enforce crime aggressively and unapologetically and use “every legal means at our disposal to target illegal gun possession.”
“We’re going to target individuals concealing their identity. We’re going to target fare evasion. ꦫWe’re going to target open drug use,” Lawson said. “We’re going to target every cr🐈iminal code on the books.”
Officials are increasing monitoring of security cameras and looking into ways to let employ🐲ees report potential problems discreetly and safely, Lawson added.
