Eight Philadelphia teenagers were shot while waiting for a city bus on their way home from high school Wednesday in the latest flash of gun violence in the city.
One of the teens — a 16-year-old boy who was shot nine times — is fighting for his life, according to police and local reports.
A group of students from Northeast High School were waiting at a SEPTA bus stop in Philly’s Burholme neighborhood when three gunmen jumped out of a parked vehicle and ambushed the teens at around 3 p.m., Philadelphia Police Commissioner Kevin Bethel said.
The gunmen fired more than 30 shots as the teens rushed to get onto an arriving bus, Bethel said at a press conference from the scene streamed by ABC 6.
Eight students were shot. The 16-year-old boy was rushed to the hospital in critical condition while the seven other victims — who range in age from 15 to 17 — are listed in stable condition, according to police.
The three shooters and the driver of a dark blue Hyundai sedan were all wearing masks during the mass shooting and were last seen driving toward Cheltenham Township, sources told the local news station.
Two city buses were hit by bullets amid the chaos, but no passengers or bus drivers were struck or injured, SEPTA told the station.
A woman who works at a nearby diner heard the sounds of gunshots and ran out to find several young people wounded.
“These children are dying every day out here, somebody’s got to do something. This doesn’t happen in this neighborhood,” she told ABC 6.
The night before the bus stop shooting, a man was shot dead on a Route 79 bus in south Philadelphia.
The day before that, a 17-year-old boy was killed and four others were injured when shots rang out at a different bus stop in the Ogontz neighborhood. And the day before that, a 27-year-old was fatally shot following an argument on a SEPTA bus in the Oxford Circle neighborhood, according to the station.
“Over the past few days, we have seen these senseless acts of gun violence occur in and around schools and public transportation, mass transit, SEPTA,” Mayor Cherelle Parker said at the press briefing.
“Enough is enough,” she added. “Every law enforcement partner that we have in the city of Philadelphia is actively engaged and working together to ensure that every resource that is needed is readily available so that the work can be done to solve crimes.”
Parker added that the city will use “every legal tool in the toolbox” to ensure the safety of residents — that they will “not be held hostage” in their homes over fears of gun violence.
Police said they are ramping up the number of officers on the street.
“As a result of what we’ve seen over the last few days, we’re going to be ramping up our resources significantly,” Bethel said. “I want parents and families to know that we’re going to be along our corridors across the entire city of Philadelphia until we can figure out exactly what’s going on.”
Police are investigating whether the Monday shooting that killed 17-year-old Dayemen Taylor in Ogontz could be connected to the latest gun violence. In that shooting, two gunmen also opened fire on a group of teens waiting for a public bus.
