In the most recent episode of the nation’s gun violence problem, a shooting spree left at least four adults dead and two children injured in Philadelphia, according to authorities.
According to Philadelphia police commissioner Danielle Outlaw, the dead were all males between the ages of 20 and 59, while the two kids were injured..
Police located the alleged shooter, a 40-year-old man who was carrying a handgun and a rifle, close to the Kingsessing neighbourhood where the incident occurred, according to Outlaw.
“I don’t know if he was firing the rifle at the time we were pursuing or the handgun, but yes he was actively shooting a firearm at the time our officers were pursuing,” she said.
Earlier local media reports said that four individuals had been hurt in the incident, but Outlaw reported that just two people, both children, had been hurt.
According to Outlaw, the massive crime scene covered at least eight city blocks and was roped off by police, as seen in local television footage.
“We have absolutely no idea why this happened. Like I said we have this person in custody and we are doing what we can to positively identify this person,” she said.
Police said they had also apprehended a second person, who they believe returned fire against the shooter.
“At some point as victims were being shot, we have another person that we believe acquired a gun somehow… and returned fire in the direction of the shooter that we have in custody,” said Outlaw.
Monday’s shooting was at least the 341st that the United States has seen this year, according to the Gun Violence Archive (GVA), with at least 21,696 people killed, including 12,144 suicides so far this year.
The GVA defines a “mass shooting” as a gun-related incident in which at least four or more people are wounded or killed.
Last year, at least 44,357 people were killed in gun violence in the United States, more than half of which were suicides.
Over the weekend, two people were killed and 28 wounded in a shooting at a block party in the eastern city of Baltimore.
