Skip to content
Link copied to clipboard
Link copied to clipboard

Center City shooting leaves 2 wounded, sparks car chase and crash on I-676

It all started at 23rd and JFK Boulevard around 3:55 a.m., police say.

File Photo: Police car lights at a crime scene.
File Photo: Police car lights at a crime scene.Read moreAlexandru Cuznetov / MCT

Philadelphia police are trying to untangle the circumstances surrounding a Center City shooting that left two men wounded early Thursday and sparked a car chase that ended with a crash on I-676.

Further confusing the situation, the two shooting victims, instead of going to a closer hospital in the city, made their way to Cooper University Hospital in Camden, where they were reported to be in stable condition.

According to police, two men, ages 49 and 39, where sitting in a car at 23rd Street and JFK Boulevard about 3:55 a.m. when they were fired upon. The older man was hit once in a left rib; the other man suffered a wound to one of his fingers, police said.

The men tried to flee from the site in their vehicle, but the suspects gave chase, police said.

The chase ended when the suspects’ apparent vehicle, a white SUV with a New York plate, crashed in the eastbound lanes of I-676 under the 17th Street Bridge and the occupants fled on foot, police said.

The victims, in the meantime, drove to 30th Street and JFK Boulevard, where they left their car and got into another vehicle for the ride to Cooper Hospital, according to police.

Investigators were trying to establish a motive.