One person killed and four injured in Chester house-party shooting
Officers responded to the sounds of active gunfire just a few blocks from the police station in the City of Chester.
A 16-year-old boy was killed and four people were injured after multiple gunshots rang out shortly before 11 p.m. Friday at a house party in the city of Chester, police said.
No arrests had been reported as of 7 p.m. Saturday.
Evidence at the scene suggested an exchange of gunfire, police said, adding that two adjacent apartments also were struck, but no occupants were injured.
The teenager was found unresponsive on the front steps of a house in the 200 block of East 10th Street, suffering from gunshot wounds, police said. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
Three additional victims — ages 26, 16, and 25 — were discovered inside the home, suffering from gunshot wounds. Medics took them to Christiana Hospital in Newark, Del., and Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia for treatment. Their conditions were not available Saturday.
A fifth victim, aged 21, was discovered outside the house with a graze wound to the upper back.
Police said that individual was treated at the scene and reported seeing a dark-colored sedan with tinted windows in the area around the time of the shooting, but little else.
Officers recovered a handgun near the bottom of the steps in the living room of the house and, later, a second firearm in the basement, police said.
“This heartbreaking violence is a painful reminder that we must come together as a community to protect our neighborhoods and our youth,” Stefan Roots, mayor of the Delaware County city, said in a statement.
He added that the city “will not stand idle while senseless acts of gun violence rob families of their loved ones.”