A 40-year old man is in custody in Philadelphia after killing five and injuring at least four more people when he seemingly indiscriminately opened fire at cars and pedestrians with an AR 15-style rifle on a bustling summer evening Monday.
A 40-year old man is in custody in Philadelphia after killing five and injuring at least four more people when he seemingly indiscriminately opened fire at cars and pedestrians with an AR 15-style rifle on a bustling summer evening Monday.
“What happened last night in our Kingsessing neighborhood was unimaginably disgusting and horrifying,” said Philadelphia Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw at a Tuesday afternoon press conference.
“On what was supposed to be a beautiful summer evening, this armed and armored individual wreaked havoc, firing with a rifle at their victims, seemingly at random. Shooting seven, killing five, including children, babies.”
Philadelphia had already racked up 212 homicides for 2023 as of Sunday, which is a 19% decrease from the previous year, according to the city’s Comptroller Office. At that time 185 of those homicides were from shootings, and an additional 744 people suffered non-fatal gunshot wounds in what the Comptroller’s office has labeled a “gun violence crisis.”
Before 9 p.m. Monday, four more men would be pronounced dead at Penn Presbyterian Medical Center, according to Philadelphia Police as a result of the rampage: Lashyd Merritt, 20, who was shot multiple times in the chest and arm; Dymir Stanton, 29, shot in the chest and back; Ralph Moralis, 59, shot in the head, side and buttocks; and teenager Daujan Brown, 15, who was shot in the shoulder, chest and back.
Four others were injured in the violence: two 2-year-old boys, as well as a 13-year-old boy and a 33-year-old woman.
