PHILADELPHIA _ Seven people were killed and 12 others were wounded by gunfire in less than 48 hours in Philadelphia over the weekend, including a 15-year-old boy shot dead on Saturday and an 18-month-old boy who suffered a graze wound to the head on Sunday.
The violence spanned neighborhoods across the city and was particularly acute Sunday, when 10 people were killed or injured in less than 10 hours, according to Philadelphia Police.
In one of those incidents, police said, a 44-year-old man was shot in the hand and leg when he was robbed of $4.
The outburst pushed the city's homicide total to 14 victims in 12 days in 2020, police statistics show, the most killings this early in the year in five years.
Gun violence has continued to plague the city even as other violent crime tallies remain relatively low: 356 people were slain last year, the highest total since 2007, and more than 1,400 people were shot, the highest total since 2010.
The toddler was shot in East Germantown on Sunday afternoon during an incident on the 100 block of East Pastorius Street in which a 26-year-old man was also struck in the shoulder. Both were hospitalized in stable condition, police said.
Acting Commissioner Christine Coulter told reporters at the scene that there was "no doubt" the gunman knew they were firing with a child in range: "They had to see the kid. They were right up on (the victims)."
A day earlier, around 1:34 p.m. Saturday, 15-year-old Demitrius Moore of North Philadelphia was fatally shot on the 3100 block of North Rosewood Street. He was pronounced dead 13 minutes later at Temple University Hospital, police said.
On Saturday night, a 35-year-old man whom police did not identify was fatally stabbed in the neck on the 100 block of S. 17th Street, near Sansom Street. Police said someone had been taken into custody, but they did not provide further details Monday morning.
A witness told The Philadelphia Inquirer this weekend that he was sitting in his car when he saw a fight among three men spill out from between parked cars; one of the men then pulled out a large knife.
The other victims who were killed, according to police, were all men ranging between the ages of 23 and 35.
Amid the spree of crimes, Mayor Jim Kenney on Monday expressed frustration over what he called an "overwhelming weekend," and over how many people can access guns, whether legally purchased or bought on the street.
"The guns are still the one part of this that we can't control," Kenney said after an unrelated news conference in Rhawnhurst, referring to the inability under state law for the city to enact its own gun regulations.
Still, Kenney said, city officials would do "everything we can" to reduce the violence, adding that as police continue to investigate the weekend's incidents _ most of which resulted in no arrests _ community crisis responders were being sent to affected neighborhoods and seeking to speak to residents and help prevent retaliation.
The violence continued Monday morning. Police said a 19-year-old man was killed around 11:04 a.m. on the 1900 block of Georgian Road in West Oak Lane when he was shot several times in the head.
