A storefront window with bullet holes is seen at the scene of a fatal shooting on South Street in Philadelphia
PHILADELPHIA, June 6 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Six people were killed and two dozen others wounded in a pair of weekend mass shootings in the United States, the latest in a string of deadly gun attacks that have left lawmakers scrambling to tackle the crisis.
The shootings – late Saturday in Philadelphia and early Sunday in Chattanooga, Tennessee – further jolted a country facing a gun violence epidemic that has already claimed several thousand American lives this year and shows no signs of abating.
And they come as polarised US senators find themselves under pressure to craft a measure that codifies at least basic, preliminary steps to help reduce the carnage.
Multiple shooters opened fire in Philadelphia’s busy South Street, an area filled with bars and restaurants, shortly before midnight on Saturday. Two men and a woman were killed, officials said, with two of the dead and most if not all of the wounded being innocent bystanders.
Surveillance video showed people on a crowded street running in panic in the closing moments of the 22-second clip, presumably after gunshots were fired. The clip had no audio.
Likewise in Chattanooga, Tennessee, shooting broke out as people were otherwise enjoying a Saturday night on the town, though the violence erupted after midnight.
No suspects were in custody in either shooting.
In yet another shooting in the early hours of Sunday, three people were killed in Saginaw, Michigan, Mlive.com reported, citing Saginaw police.
The incidents followed recent shootings that killed 10 people at a grocery store in Buffalo, New York; 21 victims at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas; and four people at a medical building in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Gun safety advocates are pushing the US government to take stronger measures to curb gun violence.
There have been at least 240 mass shootings in the United States so far this year, according to the Gun Violence Archive, a nonprofit research group. It defines a mass shooting as one in which at least four people are shot, excluding the shooter.
Warmer weather tends to bring a spike in US violence, and in addition to the massacres in Texas and New York, recent weeks have seen mass shootings at a hospital in Oklahoma and a church in California.
Philadelphia police reported at least three separate shooting incidents in South Street, involving at least five shooters.
In the one deadly outburst, police believe two men got into a physical altercation and began shooting at each other, and one of those two was killed by gunfire. A police officer observed the other shooter firing into the crowd and fired at him.
Police believe that shooter was wounded as he dropped his gun, but he nevertheless escaped through the crowd, Philadelphia Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw told a news conference
Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney described the shooting as “horrendous, despicable and senseless”. The deceased were aged 22, 27 and 34 while the ages of the people wounded ranged from 17 to 69.
There were multiple shooters in Tennessee as well. Chattanooga Police Chief Celeste Murphy appealed for the public’s help, asking any witnesses to call a tip line.
US President Joe Biden last week called for new gun control legislation, and on Sunday he renewed his call for restrictions on semi-automatic rifles.
“If we can’t ban assault weapons as we should, we must at least raise the age to buy assault weapons to 21,” he posted on Twitter.
US gun violence has killed 18,574 people so far in 2022, including nearly 10,300 suicides, according to the Gun Violence Archive, which tracks shootings nationwide. — NNN-AGENCIES
