Nine people wounded in mass shooting outside bar when violence erupts in crime-ridden Philadelphia

Mayhem broke out in the City of Brotherly Love as the Phillies crashed out of the World Series Saturday – with a shooting leaving nine wounded, five critically, and police struggling to find the suspects.

The incident occurred at 10:42 pm ET outside a bar in Kensington, First Deputy Commissioner John Stanford of the Philadelphia Police Department said at a news conference early Sunday morning. 

‘Multiple suspects’ jumped out of a vehicle and opened fire on a crowd standing on the sidewalk, the commissioner said, standing feet away from the dozens of bullet casings littering the crime scene.

At least 40 shots were fired during the incident, and a reported ‘three or four people’ exited and reentered the car before driving off.

Police did not specify how many people were involved in the actual shooting before the group fled – leaving the nine victims bleeding out on the ground.

All adult men and women ranging from 23 and 40 years old, the victims were taken to an area hospital where the currently remain as of Sunday. Five were reported in critical condition, police said, the other four were in stable condition.

Police had not established a motive for the shootout, nor did they recover any weapons, Stanford said. Cops also could not provide the make of the vehicle.

It remains unclear what sparked the shooting – but it came shortly after Yordan Alvarez’s three-run shot in the sixth inning powered the Houston Astros to a 4-1 home victory in Game 6 over the Phillies.

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Nine were wounded, five critically, Saturday night when shooters emerged from a car and fired into a crowd on this sidewalk in Kensington, police said Sunday

‘Multiple suspects’ jumped out of a vehicle and opened fire on a crowd standing on the sidewalk, First Deputy Commissioner John Stanford said during a presser at the crime scene

 With that said, no riots were reported after the loss – and police have not said anything to suggest the shootout was part of such unrest, as they continue to assess the scene and search for the suspects.

A frustrated Deputy Commissioner Stanford addressed reporters at the crime scene after the shooting.

‘At this point in time, it just looks like these individuals may have spotted someone they wanted to shoot at, exited the vehicle, and began firing at the group of individuals that were there,’ the deputy said, adding, ‘We don’t have much more than that in terms of motive.’

‘We have some brazen people in this city that don’t care,’ Standford continued, addressing the rampant crime that’s plagued the city’s more than 1.6million residents since the pandemic.

Shootings in particular have been rife – with at least one occurring every day of the week, at any given hour, since May 31, and nearly every corner of the city impacted.

Crime-ridden Kensington is no exception, with shootouts now commonplace and even on the rise – causing many to speak out against the city’s soft-on-crime policies and politicians.

‘They don’t care how many police officers are out here,’ Stanford, a 20-year veteran of the force, said of the city’s litany of gun-wielding perpetrators fueling the crime surge. 

‘And some of them don’t care how many people are out here,’ the commissioner went on. ‘We continue to do what we need to do to get these individuals in custody.’

Philadelphia residents have decried a recent spate of violent crime that has seen nearly 2,000 people shot since May, as a series of incidents continue to rock the crime-ridden city

The commissioner added that the shooting was likely a planned strike, with at least some of the nine victims – who have yet to be named – being the gunmen’s intended target.

Police, however, have yet to come up with a cause for the shooting, which transpired near Kensington and Allegheny Avenues.

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‘At this point in time, it just looks like these individuals may have spotted someone they wanted to shoot at, exited the vehicle, and began firing at the group of individuals that were there,’ said Stanford as officers assessed the scene around him.

‘We don’t have much more than that in terms of motive.’

The shooting served as a continuation of the city’s continuing gun violence epidemic, which has already this year seen more than 2,000 people killed or wounded by bullets – the highest year-to-date tally in seven years.

Police have yet to come up with a motive for the shooting, which transpired near Kensington and Allegheny Avenues in a particularly crime-ridden portion of the already unsafe city

Police Sunday said that the shooting was likely a coordinated strike, with at least one of the nine victims – who have yet to be named – being the gunmen’s intended target

It also was also another incident that claimed multiple victims, with just last week a shooting outside a Spring Garden night club saw six wounded, and another earlier this year on South Street seeing seeing 14 people were shot – three fatally.

The altercation came as historically blooding, with the highest number of victims in a single incident seen in Philly in years.

The shootout on Saturday, meanwhile, occurred in an area particularly known for drug use and gun violence.

Shattered glass can be seen on the sidewalk in Kensington following the late-night shooting, which transpired as the Phillies were eliminated from the World Series on Sunday

A 2021 Inquirer study found that nearly 300 people had been shot within a five-minute walk of where the shooting took place since 2015, a rate more than 11 times greater than the city’s average as a whole.

The as a whole, meanwhile, has seen a drastic rise in violence, with overall crime up more than 23 percent so far this year compared to the same time in 2021. 

While assaults and rapes have seen a drop this year, the number of shooting victims has gone up markedly, with police reporting 1,973 cases so far this year. Shootings in general are also up, to a historic 3512.

Robberies have also seen a substantial uptick, with 2,388 cases reported this year, up 17 percent from last year. 

Many have blamed the wave on Philadelphia’s controversial District Attorney Larry Krasner, who was re-elected in 2021 but has faced dubious impeachment attempts in 2022.

Krasner, a leader in the progressive prosecutor movement, has battled with police unions and other officials who accuse him of being soft on crime. 

AG Josh Shapiro, meanwhile, has been long accused of being soft on crime as the state’s twice-elected attorney general. 

Earlier this year, Philly police appealed to the mayor that they ‘can’t keep up’ with the rapidly rising homicide rate and the mayor on Monday signing an order that will ban citizens from carrying guns in public places like parks and schools.

AG Josh Shapiro  has been long accused of being soft on crime as incidents are still on the rise

This summer, the Democrat mayor of Philadelphia blasted the ‘horrendous, brazen and despicable act of gun violence’ plaguing the nation after an overnight mass shooting left three dead and at least 11 injured in his city.  

Kenney called for officials to ‘address the availability and ease of access to firearms’ in the US as a manhunt was underway for the gunmen involved in Saturday’s vile attack. 

Kenney, like many of his fellow Democrats, has long called for stricter gun laws and stronger measures to curb gun violence.

‘Until we address the availability and ease of access to firearms, we will always be fighting an uphill battle. As Mayor, I will continue to fight to protect our communities and urge others to advocate for stronger laws that keep guns out of the hands of violent individuals,’ the mayor said.

‘The surge in gun violence that we’ve seen across the nation—and here in Philadelphia—makes me not just heartbroken, but angry. Our administration, in partnership with all of our local and federal law enforcement agencies, continues to work relentlessly to reduce violence and create safer communities.’