PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Police are trying to identify four or five men or teens they suspected of being involved in a fight on a SEPTA platform Monday night that led to gunfire and ended in a 19-year-old man in critical condition.
SEPTA police captain Kitt Walls says a fight broke out between two groups around 11:30 p.m. on the westbound platform of the Market-Frankford Line at 15th Street. Then someone pulled a gun and fired, he said.
The shot struck a 19-year-old man in the abdomen. SEPTA police took him to Jefferson Hospital, where he’s in critical condition.
Trains were seen bypassing the 15th Street stop while police were investigating the scene.
“Our virtual patrol has been examining not just when the incident happened, but leading up to that incident,” Walls said. He said investigators are examining video to see where the groups got on and off the system. And SEPTA police have released surveillance images, hoping it will help identify the men involved.
Anyone with information is asked to call police at 215-686-8477.
This is the third shooting on SEPTA in the last month. It comes just one week after 15-year-old Randy Mills was shot on a Route 23 bus on Germantown Avenue.
It is the ninth shooting this year involving SEPTA property or vehicles, and three people have been killed, officials say.
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Police responded to large groups of young people at Penn’s Landing earlier in the night, but Walls says the shooting doesn’t appear to be connected.
SEPTA passengers like Patricia say they are fed up with the violence.
“Very concerning. Very frustrating. Not sure why the city isn’t doing a little more. Very sad,” she said.
“The officers who I see patrolling the area don’t seem to be very engaged or paying a lot of attention. I think they should be more proactive than reactive.”
Walls said he knows that people may think it’s not safe to ride SEPTA. “I can understand that perception. So what it causes us to do is change our strategies as far as deployment and patrol and incorporate more plain clothes. The more we get on the train and in these stations, the better things will be.”
SEPTA’s Police Chief Chuck Lawson says it’s a violent time in the city right now and they are working to develop new response strategies, like their recent ban on people wearing ski masks while riding.
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