PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — A 12-year-old boy was one of the victims in a double shooting in South Philadelphia Thursday night — the third child shot in the city in the last two days.
Police responded to a shooting at 23rd and Tasker streets around 8:30 p.m. and found the 12-year-old victim.
“We believe he was riding a mountain bike on the sidewalk … when he was struck in the lower back by gunfire,” Chief Inspector Scott Small told reporters at the scene.
The boy was “a few feet away from the front of his house” when he was hit, Small said. A 30-year-old man was shot in the leg as well. He drove off after he was wounded. Officers found him four blocks away and took him to the hospital, police said.
“Right now, we’re not sure if either of these two victims were the intended target or struck by stray gunfire,” Small said, adding that at least 14 shots were fired in the neighborhood.
No arrests were made. Both victims were listed as stable at the hospital.
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The shooting happened eight hours after a 16-year-old boy was shot and killed on Grays Avenue, not far from Bartram Gardens, in Southwest Philadelphia. On Wednesday, a 15-year-old boy was shot outside the Marie Dendy Rec Center in North Philadelphia — the same place where, a week prior, city officials touted the installation of new security cameras in an effort to expand “safe play zones” at 14 rec centers around the city.
Of the hundreds of shooting victims in Philadelphia this year, 10% of them have been children, according to data from the city Controller’s Office. There have been roughly 300 incidents of gun violence in and around city parks in the last four years, officials added.
In light of the violence, Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. Austin Davis, Mayor Jim Kenney and other local officials will be at the Tustin Rec Center Friday afternoon to announce a Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency grant, which will pay for trauma-informed care services at a select number of rec centers for children and families affected by violence.
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