9 shot, 3 fatally, in 11-hour span in city
Police detectives were investigating an especially violent 11-hour span in Philadelphia that ended early Wednesday with nine people shot, three of them fatally.
Police detectives were investigating an especially violent 11-hour span in Philadelphia that ended early Wednesday with nine people shot, three of them fatally.
Most of the violence occurred in the 35th Police District, which covers Olney, Logan, and West Oak Lane, and police are looking into whether some of the incidents are related.
After a violent beginning to the year, Tuesday's killings bring the city's 2014 homicide total to 52, compared with 40 at the same time last year - a 30 percent increase in deaths and a tally greater than New York City's this year.
The violence began Tuesday afternoon, when a 22-year-old man was shot on the 1900 block of West Olney Avenue just steps from the La Salle University campus about 4 p.m. He was pronounced dead a short time later at Einstein Medical Center from a gunshot wound in the torso.
Police on Wednesday identified the victim as Adrian Wills of the 5500 block of Boyer Street. Wills, who was not enrolled at the university, had been in a fistfight with a group of men, one of whom pulled a handgun and shot him.
Also Wednesday, police released the name of a man killed in a double shooting that led to a dramatic standoff Tuesday night in Logan.
About 6 p.m., two gunmen opened fire on two other men on the 1300 block of Ruscomb Street. At least one of the shooters fired an AK-47, police said. Khoeum Roeun, 24, of the 5200 block of North Marvine Street, died from a gunshot wound to his neck, police said. Another man, who was not identified, was shot in his right ankle.
Witnesses told police the gunmen fled into a nearby house on the block, leading to a two-hour standoff with SWAT that ended after police coaxed seven men out of a second-floor apartment in the home. Behind the house, police recovered a trash can full of guns, including several believed to be AK-47s. Police also seized three dogs from the property. Authorities said the identities of the gunmen would be released when charges were completed.
Investigators believe the shootings may be connected to gang activity.
Then, about 11:20 p.m., police responded to a triple shooting on the 6500 block of Limekiln Pike in West Oak Lane. Two men - ages 31 and 36 - were found lying shot in the street. Another victim, a 19-year-old man shot in the foot, had been rushed to a hospital in a private vehicle.
The 31-year-old was pronounced dead at 12:15 a.m. Wednesday at Einstein. The 36-year-old was listed as critical, while the third victim was stable. A law-enforcement source said detectives were looking into whether this homicide and the La Salle killing were related.
Just before midnight, a 20-year-old man was shot in a leg on the 1100 block of Woodlawn Street in East Germantown. He was listed in stable condition. No arrests or motive was released in that shooting.
Finally, about 3 a.m., two men were shot outside a Feltonville bar. One of the victims, who is 29, is an employee of the bar; the other, 26, was a customer who was leaving, police said.
The violence began after an unidentified man and the bar employee got into a fistfight in the street after the man was denied entry, police said. The suspect then pulled a handgun and fired three times, striking the bar employee twice in the back and a bystander once in a leg.
The employee was in critical condition, police said. The bystander was stable.
The violent day and night in the Northwest Division comes after dramatic reductions in shootings and homicides in the area in 2013.
