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Cartridges littered the floor after a man was shot outside a South Philadelphia Wawa store on Friday night.
The shooting outside the 1600 block convenience store on Saint-Christophe Colomb Boulevard occurred shortly before midnight and claimed the life of the 35-year-old victim, police said, adding he was shot once to the chest. Initially, they said he was 25 years old.
More than a dozen shots were fired, police said, and several used shell casings were seen on the ground. At least one car was also hit by the gunfire.
Surveillance cameras captured a man in a black hoodie, and police said they believed he was the shooter. However, no arrests were made immediately.
Philadelphia Police Department crime statistics show that at least 412 people were killed in the city as of Friday night. This represents an 18% increase in the number of murders compared to the same period last year. That year ended with 499 murders, almost tying a high of 500 homicides in 1990.
Speaking to NBC10 earlier in the week, Mayor Jim Kenney said much of the blame for the violence was due to the availability of guns and state laws preventing Philadelphia from adopting stricter restrictions on firearms.
“The crux of gun violence is guns, and I know that in many ways we are beyond this conversation because the legislature will never do anything about gun control.” and probably the federal government won’t either, ”Kenney said. “But there are some things we could do as a city that the legislature prevents us from doing, and that involves buying straw, it involves how many guns people can buy over the course of a particular month. “
The city is currently engaged in a lawsuit that aims to allow municipalities to enforce their own local gun control measures.
There are additional resources for individuals or communities who have experienced gun violence in Philadelphia. Further information can be found here.
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