Eight high school students in Philadelphia were shot and wounded as they waited for a public bus after school Wednesday, the latest in a string of shootings that have sparked outrage in the city, police said.
The students, who attend Northeast High School, were shot about 3 p.m. as they waited at a bus stop near a Dunkin’ Donuts a little more than half a mile from the school, said Kevin J. Bethel, the Philadelphia police commissioner. Press conference.
As a bus pulled up to the stop and the students prepared to board, three people got out of a car parked nearby and opened fire, shooting at least 30 times, he said.
The students who were hit ranged in age from 15 to 17, Commissioner Bethel said. One was shot multiple times and was in critical condition, he said.
Two buses were also hit by gunfire, though no one inside was hit, according to the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority. Commissioner Bethel said there were no arrests.
The shootings come after 11 young people were shot while walking to and from school in Philadelphia over the past three days, Commissioner Bethel said.
On Monday afternoon, a 17-year-old was killed and four others were wounded in a shooting as people boarded a SEPTA bus in Philadelphia, about four miles from the scene of Wednesday’s shooting, police said.
On Tuesday afternoon, an 88-year-old Air Force veteran, Richard Butler, was shot and killed while sitting in his car in West Philadelphia, according to local media.
And on Tuesday afternoon, a 37-year-old man was fatally shot after a fight on a SEPTA bus in Philadelphia, police said. And on Sunday night, a 27-year-old man was fatally shot after getting off a SEPTA bus in Philadelphia, police said. No arrests were made and no weapons were found in any of those shootings, police said.
“The cowardly acts we have seen over the last three days are unacceptable,” said Commissioner Bethel.
Tony B. Watlington Sr., the superintendent of the Philadelphia school district, said crisis counselors would be sent to Northeast High School to comfort grieving students. He called the shooting “horrific” and “senseless”.
“We are absolutely devastated and angry that innocent children walking home from school will be affected by gunfire,” he said at the news conference, adding: “Enough is enough.”
Earlier Wednesday, SEPTA Transit Police Chief Charles Lawson said at another news conference that officers planned to crack down on toll evasion, open drug use and illegal gun possession in response to recent shootings on or near SEPTA buses.
He said there had been “significant reductions in almost all categories of serious crime”, with the exception of gun violence. “It is this class that we will target and we will target relentlessly,” he said.
Philadelphia has recorded 55 homicides this year, up from 79 on March 6 last year and 94 on March 6, 2022, according to police statistics.
