PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Philadelphia police say a fight over a game of pool led to a shooting at a bar in Northeast Philadelphia on Tuesday night that killed a 21-year-old woman.
Crime scene and homicide investigators were at the Philly Bar and Restaurant on Wednesday morning, still combing through evidence. The woman’s family was there as well to identify the body of Jailene Holton.
Around 11 p.m., police say, three men were causing some kind of disturbance and were kicked out of the bar. The staff had a tough time with one of the men, in particular.
"He inquired about using a pool table and was informed the pool table was currently being used. He took umbrage to it, and he began a verbal argument with the people playing pool as well as the staff of the bar," said Lt. Dan Brooks.
"At one point he left the bar, and when he tried to get back in, bar employees told him he was no longer welcome into the bar."
Police say that's when the man went to his truck and grabbed a gun.
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Meanwhile, Holton entered the bar to pick up some friends, as their designated driver.
That's when the man outside with the gun fired 15 shots at the bar from a distance.
Chief Inspector Scott Small said five of those shots went through the bar’s glass windows, and one of them hit Holton in the head, even though she was standing in the back, far from the windows.
She died a short time later at the hospital. Police say Holton was not targeted.
Another person was wounded by broken glass.
“Everyone is running around like it’s the Wild West out here,” said James Holton, the victim’s uncle. “Coward shooting at a bar from 100 feet or more. Someone goes out for 10 to 20 minutes and they’re dead.”
The Philly Bar and Restaurant is at 2417 Welsh Road, in the Blue Grass Plaza shopping center, just off of Roosevelt Boulevard.
Authorities say the shooter got away in a newer-model black pickup truck. There are plenty of cameras around the shopping center, so police say they hope to identify him quickly.