PHILADELPHIA _ Philadelphia's gun violence epidemic reached alarming heights Sunday, as 23 people were shot across the city _ the most in a single day since at least 2013 _ and six of the victims died, including a 6-year-old boy shot inside an Upper Holmesburg rowhouse.
The violent surge capped a July Fourth holiday weekend in which 35 people were shot between Friday morning and Sunday night, according to police. The victims included an 11-year-old girl grazed by a bullet in Elmwood, a 52-year-old man shot in the foot while riding a bike in North Philadelphia and a 15-year-old boy who died after being shot in the head during a triple shooting in Overbrook.
Police said most of the cases had not yet resulted in arrests. On the block where the 6-year-old was killed, neighbors said they were shocked to learn that a child died inside with other kids nearby.
So far this year, at least 888 people have been shot in the city, according to a Philadelphia Inquirer analysis of city and police data _ an average of 4.7 people per day. The number of shooting victims has been steadily increasing since 2014, when 1,047 people were shot.
If this year's pace holds, the city will reach that number by early August _ and will finish the year with more than 1,700 victims, the highest total since at least 2007.
Homicides, which also have been steadily rising in recent years, have continued to surge in 2020. According to police statistics, 210 people have been killed in the city this year, 27% above last year's total, and putting the city on pace for its highest annual murder tally since 1997.
Mayor Jim Kenney on Monday lamented the violence, saying police resources have been stretched thin by the ongoing protests sparked by the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, and adding that violent situations can sometimes result from people being stuck in their homes for a long time because of the coronavirus pandemic.
City Council President Darrell Clarke said the city was facing a "perfect storm" of problems, including widespread poverty, the coronavirus, the ongoing unrest, and easy access to guns _ issues he said council was working to try to improve.
"At the end of the day, we've got to get through this," Clarke said. "We got to figure out a way."
Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw was not available for an interview, the department said.
The steady uptick in gun violence this year began with an especially brutal January and continued even after the emergence of the coronavirus, when shootings and homicides continued unabated as other violent crime generally decreased during the city's stay-at-home order.
Other cities across the country have also seen an increase in gun violence in recent weeks, even as overall reported crimes have fallen amid the pandemic. Chicago and New York City have each reported high levels of gun violence during recent weekends.
Jerry Ratcliffe, a Temple University criminal justice professor, said in an interview Monday that determining causes for the spikes could be a challenge. In Philadelphia, so much has changed during the pandemic and subsequent social unrest: More people are staying home, more people are unemployed, police have shifted arrest and enforcement tactics to protect public health, and a broad public conversation has been taking place about the legitimacy of police.
"You've got multiple things taking place at once, and it's hard to disentangle the effects of each one," he said. "Some of these factors will compound each other, some may dissipate, but we just don't know."
Kenney has said police faced unprecedented deployment challenges during the first several days of the protests related to Floyd's death. Police statistics show that 35 people were shot during the protest's first two days, on May 31 and June 1, though the majority did not occur in areas where demonstrations took place.
Beyond simply recording more victims, the frequency of shootings has been on the rise this year. According to an Inquirer analysis of city data, only 3% of this year's 186 days have passed without a shooting _ the smallest percentage of any year since 2013.
Instead, 45% of this year's days have ended with at least five people shot.
And at least 78 of this year's victims have been age 17 or younger, with 10 of this year's victims getting shot before they reached age 13.
One of them was Fakeem Hayes, the 6-year-old boy killed Sunday around 1 p.m. inside a house on Kendrick Street in Upper Holmesburg.
Staff Inspector Sekou Kinebrew, a police spokesperson, said by text that Hayes did not live at the house where he was shot, and that detectives were "still trying to sort everything out, and our best witnesses are young children."
Outlaw told TV reporters at the scene Sunday that an adult was home with the children when the shooting occurred, and that a neighbor "transported that adult and the young boy to the hospital."
No one answered the door Monday at the two-story red brick rowhouse where the shooting happened. A small blue inflatable pool sat on the front lawn, and two red-and-blue kids' bikes were parked on the concrete walkway in front of the house.
Neighbors said the people who live in the home kept to themselves. Biolanny Gil, 29, said: "There are so many people coming in and out of the house. You don't know who actually lives there."
Other neighbors said they believed there was drug activity at that house and another on the block. A woman who asked to remain anonymous for fear of retribution called the houses "problem homes for a very long time." She said she did not know who lived there.
The woman said she initially believed that police visiting the house Sunday afternoon had done so as part of a drug bust. She was saddened to learn it was instead for the death of a young boy.
"The whole neighborhood was shocked to hear that had happened," she said.
