PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — What started with a shooting at FDR Park in South Philadelphia early Wednesday morning ended in a wrong-way crash on the Schuylkill Expressway.
Around 3 a.m. at FDR Park on Pattison Avenue, police said an altercation broke out between two people in a Ford Explorer and a 22-year-old man in an Infiniti sedan.
The situation escalated to violence, and about 18 shots were fired. At least eight of those shots peppered the SUV, according to investigators.
A 26-year-old man who was in the SUV was hit in the neck. He was with a woman, who then drove off in the car. The 22-year-old driver in the sedan did the same.
Somehow, both drivers ended up going the wrong way on I-76 west, just west of Passyunk Avenue.
“These vehicles were traveling at a high rate of speed, appeared to be chasing each other,” said Chief Inspector Scott Small, citing the account of a PennDOT tow truck driver who witnessed them speed off.
The vehicles then crashed and spun around. No other cars were hit, and no other drivers were hurt.
“This could have been a lot worse,” Small noted.
Officers arrived on the highway and saw the shooting victim in the back seat of the SUV, unable to move. He was taken to the hospital, where he is listed in critical condition. The 32-year-old woman who was in the car with him was not hurt.
Police took the sedan driver, who they believe to be the shooter, into custody.
“We found the gun on the floorboards of that Infiniti. We believe that was the weapon used,” Small said.
A motive for the shooting has not yet been determined.
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