PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Police say eight Philadelphia high school students waiting to board a city bus after classes Wednesday were wounded by gunshots from suspects who jumped from a car and opened fire, the fourth shooting on the transit system in as many days.
The previous three shootings each involved a fatality. Those wounded at the bus stop included a 16-year-old who was hit nine times and was in critical condition, Kevin Bethel, the city’s police commissioner, said at a news conference. Police said later that a second victim was also in critical condition. The others were said to be in stable condition.
Bethel said the Northeast High School students, ranging in age from 15 to 17, were waiting for the bus around 3 p.m. when three people emerged from the car, which was waiting at the scene, and fired more than 30 shots. Police said the attackers were masked and the car was a dark blue Hyundai Sonata.
Police then received numerous 911 calls about a “mass shooting on the highway near Dunkin’ Donuts,” in northeast Philadelphia, according to police spokesperson Tanya Little.
The injured teens were taken to Einstein Medical Center and Jefferson Torresdale Hospital, according to John Golden, a spokesperson for the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority, or SEPTA. Two buses — a Route 18 bus and a Route 67 bus — were hit by gunfire, but there were no reports of injuries to passengers or the driver.
Northeast High School is more than a mile from where the shooting took place and the largest public high school in the city, with more than 3,000 students.
Monique Braxton, deputy chief of communications for the Philadelphia school district, said the shooting occurred near Crossan Elementary, which was dismissing students at the time but pulled them back inside and locked down. It later got an all-clear from police.
Mayor Cherelle Parker, standing at the scene with the city police commissioner and prosecutor and the school superintendent, said she wanted people to know that “we will not be held hostage, that we will use every legal tool in the toolbox to ensure the public health and safety of the people of our city.”
Superintendent Tony Watlington Sr. said officials were “absolutely heartbroken and angry that innocent children walking home from school would be impacted by gun violence, and we agree with the mayor: Enough is enough.”
