Police said they believed a 60-year-old man shot two women, a 31-year-old who died at the scene and the other, described as the shooter's 55-year-old girlfriend, who was declared dead at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. Their names were not released.
According to neighbors, the man shot the younger woman on the street and then went inside to go after her mother. He shot her in the head, then walked away, neighbors said.The next shooting was reported at 8:15 p.m. in the 6200 block of North Smedley Street, in the Ogontz section of the city. Police said a 17-year-old boy was shot in the head and declared dead at the scene by rescue units. His name was not released.
Those homicides were followed by another about 9:20 p.m. in North Philadelphia.
Initial reports were that a 50-year-old man was found shot twice in the abdomen on the 100 block of West Westmoreland Street.
Another shooting about the same time on the 7300 block of Ogontz Avenue reportedly left three people with serious injuries. All three were taken Albert Einstein Medical Center.
Last night's violence was preceded by another homicide hours earlier in Hunting Park.
Police said a man opened fire about 1 a.m. yesterday inside La Quinta Restaurant & Bar at Fifth and Courtland Streets. The gunfire resulted in one fatality and the wounding of five people.
The dead man was described as 30 years old. Police would not release his identity yesterday because his family had not been notified. There was no word on a suspect or a motive for the shootings.
Now, I don't know about you, but I lost count. That is one busy, bloody night in Philly. Why do you think that is? How do the gun laws enter into this? In Pennsylvania they're fairly lenient and across the river in New Jersey they're fairly strict. I wouldn't imagine the guns involved would have come from Jersey, would you?
Do you think the availability of handguns in Philadelphia could have played a part in this tragic weekend? Do you suppose if guns were much harder to come by, one or more of these deaths might have been avoided?
Please leave a comment.
Philly's gun laws are actually MORE strict than PA's because they have some "home rule" authority and because they routinely ignore state law and the State Constitution when passing gun control laws.
ReplyDeleteAll that gun control seems to be working out great for them.
Philly has a CRIMINAL problem as well as a huge problem with their revolving door justice system continuing to release habitually violent offenders.
It's not the guns Mike. If it were the rest of PA would be a bloodbath by comparison, and violent crime would be MUCH lower in the gun control paradise that is NJ.......oh wait, NJ is a violent cesspool.
Illinois has much stricter laws and Chicago has 5x the murder rate of the rest of the state.
ReplyDeleteMaybe we should ban urban people from owning firearms since they can't seem to control themselves.
Would you support that measure?
Just horrific...
ReplyDelete:( Difficult to read.
Hey, let's take a look at an update of the Ersland case. Let's look at who asked that Ersland keep his firearms:
ReplyDelete""District Attorney David Prater asked the judge to allow Ersland to have access to a gun at work in case the pharmacy is robbed again. The prosecutor said his position "sounds crazy” but he insisted that under the law Ersland has the right to defend himself and others at the pharmacy."
The DA asked this? Why would he do that?
"The district attorney said he worried crooks now will know it is "open season” at the pharmacy if Ersland is there."
Let's then look at who also has been arrested and charged w/ 1st degree murder for their involvement:
"Emanuel Dewayne Mitchell, a thirty-one year old felon who was released from prison last Summer has been arrested, along with forty-three year old Anthony Devale Morrison. The two adults, known by the teenager's mother, gave the boys a gun with no ammunition, and instructed them on what drug to demand during the robbery."
So who was at fault? The victim of the robbery, the criminals who gave the gun to the teenagers, or the firearm industry?
http://xavierthoughts.blogspot.com/
Thirdpower, Thanks for that update, I hadn't seen it. Here's where we talked about it before.
ReplyDeleteLuckily, there's plenty of fault to go around in this case because I'm afraid they're all guilty in different ways, but all in grave ways.
If it can be proven that the pharmacist shot the kid after he was out of action, he's guilty.
If it can be proven that the mother's drug addict friends gave the kid the gun and told him what to do, he's guilty.
And last but not least, the kid himself who attempted to rob the pharmacy, guilty and already punished.