PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Police are investigating two violent SEPTA incidents in Philadelphia over the weekend, including one with a hatchet-wielding man.
The first incident took place around 8:30 p.m. Saturday on a Broad Street Line train in Hunting Park. Police say it stemmed from a neighborhood beef that "kind of spilled over onto SEPTA."
Police say the gunman — who had a concealed carry permit — fired a shot when several people attacked him.
A 20-year-old was shot twice — once in the shoulder and once in the left side of his body.
The victim was taken to the hospital and is in stable condition. SEPTA Transit Police said one person was taken into custody and a gun was recovered.
Then around 1:15 a.m. Sunday, police said there was an attack involving a hatchet. A 46-year-old man was on the concourse near the Broad-Ridge Spur when another man — later identified as 28-year-old Kenneth Rogers — attacked him from behind with a hatchet, hitting him in the head six times, authorities said.
Police said Rogers demanded money and kept hitting the victim, who replied that he only had a dollar on him. A passerby helped the victim briefly get control of the hatchet, police said, but Rogers stomped on the victim's face and threatened to kill him.
The man got away and reported the attack to SEPTA officers at the subway station at 8th and Market streets. He had bruises on his face and cuts on his body and the back of his head, police said, but he survived the attack.
He described his attacker to police and they found him on the street shortly thereafter. Police arrested Rogers, who already had a warrant out for his arrest on an attempted murder charge from a separate incident in June, investigators said.
Rogers is now charged with aggravated assault and related offenses. Police did not recover a weapon.
There's no word yet on charges in the unrelated shooting.
In a statement, SEPTA spokesperson Andrew Busch said while both incidents were terrible acts of violence, crime on SEPTA is down 10%, from 2023 to 2022. He said last year was the lowest level of crime on SEPTA since 2018.
"These were obviously terrible incidents over the weekend, but we have been seeing fewer incidents of serious crime overall," he said. "We are increasing our police officer staffing numbers, and incidents have declined as ridership has increased."
