One man died and five others were injured when gunmen opened fire at a pop-up party in Philadelphia, with at least 150 people present on Saturday morning, police said.
The shooting in a residential area of the Nicetown neighborhood started inside a restaurant with space for events and then continued on the street, with bullet cartridges covering several blocks, said Philadelphia Police Department Commissioner Danielle Outlaw.
“There were at least 150 people there who ran away and believed they would have to run for their lives, so this is a big deal,” she said.
Police began receiving calls about the shooting at 4200 block on Germantown Avenue around 3:45 am, and when police arrived, they found five of the victims, including a man who was shot in the body and head, Outlaw said. The man was taken by police to the hospital, where he was pronounced dead. After initially indicating another age, the police said he was 29 years old.
The other five, one of whom had already been taken to a hospital when the police arrived, are expected to survive, the commissioner said. The victims are aged between 29 and 41 and include four men and two women, said PPD spokeswoman Tanya Little.
One person died and five others were injured when shots were fired at a pop-up party in Philadelphia. Katy Zachry reports from NBC10.
Outlaw said the shooting occurred at an illegal pop-up party that was taking place in the space of a restaurant that had already been cited several times by the police. She said that the police have closed the event space in the past, but the restaurant has remained open, and now the PPD will contact the city leadership about possible new sanctions.
The fact that it happened in a residential neighborhood was “worrying,” she added.
More of these illegal pop-up parties have started to emerge, despite the ongoing coronavirus pandemic and restrictions on large meetings, as more people want to leave, Outlaw said.
Also worrying is the fact that the city is facing more and more shootings.
In the week ending March 14, there were 695 shootings across Philadelphia, according to PPD data. As of March 19, the city had already registered 106 homicides, not including the victim of the Nicetown shooting.
“We thought that the shootings or the violence would decrease at some point because of the weather and, to be honest, I think we saw that it didn’t happen, it didn’t decrease,” said Outlaw.
She said she is concerned that as temperatures rise and eventually lead to summer, more people will be shot. The key to stemming the tide will be partnerships with community stakeholders, as well as more police patrols – both on cruisers and on foot – in high-crime areas, Outlaw said.
City leaders, including Outlaw and Mayor Jim Kenney, also began holding weekly press conferences to curb armed violence.
Additional resources exist for people or communities who have experienced armed violence in Philadelphia. Additional information can be found here.
Editor’s Note: This story has been updated to reflect the precise ages of the victims after the police initially provided other ages.