There was yet another mass shooting. On June 4, three people were killed and 11 injured by gunfire at South Street, one of Philadelphia’s most popular dining, shopping, and entertainment corridors. The area was packed with people enjoying the nightlife and the good evening weather.
The shooting comes on the heels of a gunman targeting a 4th-grade class at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, on May 25 killing 21 and injuring 17. And on May 14 in Buffalo, New York, 10 people were killed and three injured in a racially motivated shooting a supermarket. Eleven of the victims were African American.
At around 11:30 p.m. Saturday night, gunfire erupted on South Street, sending people scrambling for cover.
The shooting, according to witnesses, happened after a short brawl, and two of three men in the fight fired at each other. The man who first drew a handgun was killed, police said. Another man involved in the fight was hospitalized in critical condition. An officer fired at one of the shooters, who was still firing a gun into the crowd, police said. The shooter dropped the weapon and fled, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported.
Police said they were viewing a cell phone video uploaded to YouTube that seems to show the moments before the shooting occurred.
Police have identified the three people killed in the South Street mass shooting. They are: Kristopher Minners, 22; Alexis Quinn, 24; and Gregory “Japan” Jackson, 34. According to the American Federation of Teachers Pennsylvania, the union representing more than 36,000 educators and paraprofessionals, Minners was a second-grade resident advisor at Girard College and a member of the Girard College Federation of Teachers. Girard College is a five-day boarding school in Philadelphia for students grades 1-12.
Eleven people were wounded in the shooting, with the victims ages ranging from 17 to 69, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported.
“Once again, we see lives senselessly lost and those injured in yet another horrendous, brazen, and despicable act of gun violence,” Mayor Jim Kenney said in a written statement. “My heart is with the family, friends, loved ones of those lost or injured, and with everyone impacted by this terrible tragedy.”
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It is just the 22nd week of the year and there has already been at least 246 mass shootings, according to data from the Gun Violence Archive, an independent data collection organization. This is an average of just over 11 mass shootings per week. A mass shooting is defined as an incident in which four or more people are shot or killed, excluding the shooter, according to Gun Violence Archive.
In the first weekend in June, there were at least 11 mass shootings. Among them, there were 14 people shot near a nightclub in Chattanooga, Tenn., 14 people were shot in Philadelphia at South Street, and eight were shot at a graduation party in Summerton, S.C., NPR reported.
Photo: Philadelphia Police investigators work the scene of a fatal overnight shooting on South Street in Philadelphia, June 5, 2022. (AP Photo/Michael Perez)