Car with children in the backseat is ambushed in North Philly, leaving one man dead
A man seated in the passenger seat of a grey Nissan was shot multiple times and died at the scene.
Two gunmen ambushed a car with two children in the backseat in North Philadelphia on Tuesday morning, killing a 38-year-old man and injuring a 14-year-old, police said.
Around 8:45 a.m., a gray Nissan pulled into the Conoco gas station at North Broad Street and Glenwood Avenue, and the driver went inside to pay for gas, said Chief Inspector Frank Vanore of the Philadelphia Police Department.
Almost immediately, two men with guns got out of a nearby car, then ran up to the Nissan and shot into it more than 30 times, Vanore said.
A man in the passenger seat — whom police have not yet identified — was shot multiple times and died at the scene.
In the backseat were two young boys, ages 14 and approximately 10, Vanore said. The 14-year-old was shot once in the right arm and is in stable condition at Temple University Hospital.
The younger boy was not physically injured, nor was the driver of the car, who was walking out of the store when the gunfire erupted, police said.
Vanore said he didn’t know if the children were related to the man who was killed.
No arrests have been made, and a motive has not been determined, Vanore said.
The car, riddled with bullet holes, remained parked behind police tape at the gas station Tuesday afternoon, and more than 20 chalk outlines on the ground marked where fired cartridge casings were recovered.
Still, the station was open for business, with drivers filling up their cars at other pumps. An employee of the station declined to comment, as did employees of neighboring businesses across Broad Street.
This was not the first shooting at the busy intersection this year. A 27-year-old man was injured in a shooting there in April, and at the Speedway across the street, a 42-year-old man was fatally shot in June.
Tuesday’s homicide, which came at an hour when commuters were heading to work and children to school, happened s amid continued escalating levels as gun violence in the city has remained at record levels. So far this year, more than 360 people have died in homicides, mostly by guns, which is a 2% increase over the same time in 2021 — Philadelphia’s deadliest year on record.
And the injured 14-year-old is now among the nearly 150 minors shot in Philadelphia this year. Just on Sunday, a 4-year-old was shot in an Olney barbershop after getting a haircut before the first day of school. And earlier that afternoon, a 13-year-old was shot in the leg outside a corner store in Strawberry Mansion.