Philadelphia mass shooting: Cops hunting three gunmen after two killed and 9 injured in Fairmount Park
Police named two people killed in the shooting as 23-year-old Amya Devlin and 21-year-old Mikhail Bowers as their investigation continues
A man and a woman were killed, and three teenagers were among nine injured in a mass shooting in Philadelphia on Memorial Day.
Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle Parker said police have confirmed they are searching for three shooters, after finding three types of bullet casings at the scene.
Parker said there were “no excuses” for the “heinous act of violence” that occurred.
“This is not normal, and we won't normalize the behaviour here in our city,” she said.
“Rapid-fire” gunshots rang out just before 10.30 p.m. on Monday at Fairmount Park, the Philadelphia Police Department said, among a large crowd of adults and teenagers.
Police have named the two people killed in that mass shooting as 23-year-old Amya Devlin and 21-year-old Mikhail Bowers, while the nine injured victims ranged in age from 15 to 28.
Police Commissioner Kevin Bethel said that officers have cleared the scene of all evidence and are now working to identify the suspects.
“It will be a significant investigation,” he said.
Here’s how events unfolded.
Major developments following Fairmount Park shooting
Philadelphia officials have just finished giving an updated on the police investigation and aftermath of the mass shooting in Fairmount Park that occurred on Monday night.
Here’s the latest:
- The two people killed in the shooting have been named by police as 23-year-old Amya Davis and 21-year-old Mikhail Bowers.
- The nine other shooting victims range in age from 15 to 28, and all remain in stable conditions in hospital.
- Their injuries range from gunshot wounds to the head, to nose, thigh, arm and foot injuries.
- Philadelphia mayor Cherelle Parker said police have confirmed they are searching for three shooters, after finding three types of bullet casings at the scene.
- Police commissioner Kevin Bethel said all evidence at the scene has been collected but the investigation will be “significant”.
- Parker said there were “no excuses” for the “heinous act of violence” that occurred.
Two dead, nine injured in shooting
Two people have been killed and nine others have been injured in a mass shooting in Philadelphia.
The shooting occurred around 10.27 p.m. on Monday, the Philadelphia Police Department said, at Fairmount Park where many had gathered for Memorial Day celebrations.
Police said a man and a woman had died, while three teenagers aged 15, 16, and 17 were among the injured.
Police don't know if it was one shooter or multiple
Philadelphia Police Commissioner Kevin Bethel said the investigation into the shooting was ongoing.
“We expect that we’ll start to pick up a lot of information… as the day unfolds,” he said.
Bethel said police have not recovered any weapons yet, and no one has been stopped at this time.
Asked whether police knew whether it was a solo gunman, Bethel said: “We don’t know yet”.
The police commissioner said officers would continue combing the park and they would also go through social media post from before and after the shooting “to see if there’s anything we missed”.
Police commissioner says Memorial Day a 'challenge'
Philadelphia Police Commissioner Kevin Bethel said Fairmount Park was a popular area, particularly on a holiday like Memorial Day.
He said while it was not uncommon to have large groups surge in the park, what made Monday night’s events unusual was the fact there was a blend that included a lot of adults.
“We try to manage the crowds as they unfold, but at the same token, it is a challenge when individuals decide that they are going to fire into a crowd, that is something we can’t anticipate,” he said.
“It’s Memorial Day, a day when we honour those who gave their lives in war.”
‘Everybody scattered’: Witnesses describe scenes after shooting
Two young women said they’d been at a cookout all day at Fairmount Park when they heard shots fired.
“Everybody scattered,” one of the women told a Fox 29 News reporter.
“I seen two people drop,” the other said.
The first woman said about a thousand people had gathered at the park for Memorial Day celebrations.
Two other shootings in Philadelphia leave one dead, another injured
Earlier on Memorial Day, two separate shootings left one dead and another injured in North Philadelphia, according to police.
A man in his 50s was killed in a shooting that occurred just after 3.30 p.m., NBC Philadelphia reports.
Later in the evening, around 7.30 p.m., a 66-year-old man was taken to hospital in a critical condition after being shot in the head in a separate fight.
NBC reports a 74-year-old has been arrested in relation to the second incident.
Victims taken to several hospitals as investigation continues
The nine victims injured in the mass shooting at Fairmount Park were taken to several hospitals around the city.
Some were taken to the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, CBS News reports. Three teenagers aged 15, 16, and 17 were injured in the shooting.
Others were taken to Penn Presbyterian Medical Center, Temple University Hospital, and Lankenau Medical Center.
CBS also reports that another person was taken after being hit by a car in the chaos following the shooting.
'Rapid-fire' shots make police confident weapon had a 'switch'
Philadelphia police said the “rapid-fire” shots heard in videos from the shooting seem consistent with a weapon that had a ‘switch’ enabling it to fire continuously.
Police Commissioner Kevin Bethel said officers were combing through the park to find casings, which would help them identify whether more than one weapon was used.
“We can hear multiple rounds from stuff that has already been posted by social media, the team will dissect that, we have our team up there, crime scene, looking at the casings [so] we’ll be able to tell if there was one weapon or multiple weapons” he said.
“But it was pretty rapid fire, going to be pretty confident that there probably was a switch on this one.”
Switches can change firing modes on firearms, including to semi-automatic or automatic firing modes.
Philadelphia incident is the second mass Memorial Day weekend shooting in U.S.
The mass shooting in Fairmount Park on Monday night is the second mass shooting event in the U.S. over the Memorial Day weekend.
At least 11 people were injured in a shooting in a popular South Carolina beach town on Sunday night, police said.
The Horry County Police Department said early investigations indicated the shooting “resulted from an altercation during a private Memorial Day weekend gathering on a charter boat.”
Ten people suffered gunshot wounds, while another person suffered a non-gunfire-related injury, police said.
Read the full report on that shooting below:
