The shooting happened on South Street near the intersection of Third Street in Queen Village half an hour before midnight local time, according to police. The district is known for its bustling crowds at night, with bars, restaurants and cafes. Police at the scene heard several shots and then saw one or more people firing into the crowd. – There were several hundred people present in South Street to enjoy the evening, as they do every weekend when the shooting started, police officer DF Pace in the Philadelphia police told local media. Eric Walsh works at the pub O’Neals, which is located in a side street to where the shooting episode took place on Saturday night. He tells the newspaper The Philadelphia Inquirer he was closing the outdoor cafe when he heard shots. Walsh says he saw a young woman fall to the ground on a nearby street corner. “People came from the street with drops of blood on white sneakers, and with scratched knees and elbows,” Walsh told the newspaper. – We made balls out of napkins that we wet and gave out to people. It was chaos. The dead are two men and a woman. Name and age have not yet been announced. All three are said to have been hit by several shots, writes 6 ABC News. Perpetrator may have been hit The police do not yet know how many shooters there are. Police officer DF Pace says there were several patrolling police officers in the area, as is normally the case on Friday and Saturday evenings during the summer. One of the police officers who first arrived shot at a man, Pace states. Police officer DF Pace says several police officers quickly arrived at the place where the shooter or shooters were. Photo: Reuters Pace does not know if the man was hit by the three shots fired by the policeman. They only saw him lay down a weapon on the ground and run away. Two semi-automatic handguns have been found, writes The Philadelphia Inquirer. One of them will have a so-called expanded weapons magazine with room for more ammunition. A number of empty sleeves have also been found in the area, the police say. No arrests have been made so far, NBC Philadelphia and ABC News report. Photo: Philadelphia Police / Twitter Reviewing surveillance photos Police will review surveillance photos from shops, galleries, bars and restaurants in the area, hoping to get something that can identify the perpetrator or perpetrators. Close to the scene is the concert hall Theater of the Living Arts, where the hard rock group Dying Fetus had performed. – When the shooting started, I thought it would never stop, Joe Smith tells The Philadelphia Inquirer. He and a friend were waiting outside the concert hall to receive their mobile phones after the concert. He says the thoughts immediately went to the last two shooting massacres, in Buffalo, in New York and Uvalde in Texas. Panic and confusion spread, and along with several others, he ran down South Street. Police asked on Twitter that people should stay away from the area, which is closed. The dead and wounded were transported to three different hospitals in the city. For four of the injured, the condition is now stable, writes ABC News. The local newspapers bring in relatives and friends who are waiting outside for news about theirs.
ttn-69