Ballistics tests show six guns were fired in Lemon Hill shooting that struck 11 people, police say
Philly police now believe six guns were fired in the shooting in Fairmount Park on Memorial Day.
Investigators now believe six guns were fired into the crowd gathered at Lemon Hill on the night of Memorial Day in a shooting that left two people dead and nine others wounded.
Deputy Police Commissioner Frank Vanore said ballistics testing shows that the shooters, standing adjacent to the Lemon Hill Mansion in Fairmount Park, used six weapons to fire dozens of shots into a group of young people around 10:30 p.m. Monday.
Police said at least one of the guns was equipped with a switch, a device that allows a firearm to shoot at a faster rate, mimicking a machine gun. Videos posted on social media showed panicked crowds of young people screaming as they ran through the darkness from rapid-fire gunshots — something Police Commissioner Kevin Bethel likened to the “sound of war.”
There were shell casings recovered from four 9mm guns, a .40 caliber, and a .45 caliber, police said.
Eleven people, ranging in age from 15 to 23, were struck by gunfire, and two died: Mikhail Bowers, 21, and Amya Devlin, 23. Police said the other victims, one of whom was shot in the head, were stable as of Tuesday.
Police initially said they believed three shooters fired weapons into the crowd, but additional ballistics testing showed the more than 20 spent shell casings recovered at the scene came from six different guns, Vanore said.
The development comes as detectives continue to investigate the shooting, one of the largest in the city in the last decade and one that Mayor Cherelle L. Parker called a “heinous act of violence.”
Vanore said police had not yet recovered any weapons or identified any suspects. Investigators continue to gather information, he said, a process that has been slowed in part by the lack of video cameras in the immediate vicinity of the shooting.
He said the motive remains unclear, as does whether the shooters attended the Lemon Hill gathering and how they traveled to and from the park. People with affiliations to a wide range of cliques and gangs in the city were in the park that night, he said, and officials are still sorting through what, if any, connection that may have had to the crime.