PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — A 19-year-old man was shot while underground at a SEPTA subway stop at 15th and Market streets in Center City.
It happened at about 12:20 p.m. Thursday.
SEPTA Transit Police say the incident began when two people coming off an eastbound Market-Frankford Line train at 15th Street Station exchanged words with a third individual on the platform.
Both the shooter and the victim took out firearms.
The victim was shot in the stomach, hand and chest. He was taken to Jefferson Hospital and remains in critical condition.
Denise Johnson said she was on a Market-Frankford Line train that pulled up to the platform at 15th Street when the shooting started.
“They opened the doors, and you just heard a bunch of gunshots. Everybody started ducking,” said Johnson.
SEPTA Police said they were patrolling the station and immediately responded, giving first aid to the victim and carrying him out of the station.
Johnson, who relayed seeing a woman with blood on her hands and a man being carried up the steps, had been concerned that the shooter would come on the train.
“We wouldn’t have been able to get off, because everybody was trying to duck down on the ground beside each other,” she said.
Maria, who declined to give her last name, was working in a food truck on the street right above the location of the shooting.
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“We didn’t know what was going on until we saw all the police, and everybody said that there were shots fired, because it looked like they were filtering out from all over,” she said. “People were scared and crying.”
SEPTA Transit Police said the shooter escaped in a group of passengers escaping the station. Investigators did not initially recover a weapon.
Trains were bypassing 15th Street Station for about an hour. The station reopened around 1:50 p.m.
The downtown shooting comes amid a continuing surge in gun violence in Philadelphia that’s hit neighborhoods across the city.
SEPTA police union officials have been ringing alarm bells about a “staffing crisis” for months, citing 50 vacancies in early May. Former SEPTA Police Chief Thomas Nestel retired abruptly last week.
Philadelphia Police will be the lead investigators of the shooting, while SEPTA Transit Police said they will assist them. SEPTA officers will continue their regular patrols, a spokesperson said.
This is a developing story and will be updated. Stay with KYW Newsradio for the latest.
