From Sandra Johnson
WASHINGTON: A mass shooting in Philadelphia left at least three people dead and 11 others wounded, police said on Sunday in the latest case of gun violence in the United States after recent massacres in Texas, New York and Oklahoma where dozens died.
A gunman opened fire in Philadelphia’s busy South Street area, which has multiple bars and restaurants, around midnight on Saturday. Two men and a woman were killed, officials said.
“There were hundreds of individuals just enjoying South Street, as they do every single weekend when this shooting broke out,” Philadelphia Police Inspector D. F. Pace said. Local media reported that no arrests had been made, and that as of Sunday morning the streets where the chaos erupted remained closed.
A police officer responding to the scene saw a male firing into a crowd of people and then shot at the suspect, Pace said, adding that it is unclear if the shooter was hit.
But, two handguns were recovered at the scene, including one with an extended magazine, he added.
The incident followed recent shootings at a grocery store in Buffalo, New York, an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, and a medical building in Tulsa, Oklahoma, that left dozens dead.
During warmer months, gun violence tends to spike in the U.S., where there were an estimated 393 million guns in circulation in 2020, more than the number of people.
There have been at least 239 mass shootings in the United States so far this year, according to the Gun Violence Archive, a nonprofit research group.
More than 17,000 people have died in gun-related episodes across the United States over the past five months, including at least 653 children and teenagers.
Gun safety advocates are pushing the U.S. government to take stronger measures to curb gun violence. U.S. President Joe Biden last week called for new gun control legislation in response to the recent violence, lamenting the “everyday places that have become killing fields, battlefields here in America.”
A bipartisan group of senators met on Thursday to discuss a package of firearms controls, but Republicans have historically resisted tougher gun laws.
