Shooting Injures 3 as Philadelphia Eid Event Is Plunged Into Chaos

image

Three people were shot at an Eid al-Fitr event in Philadelphia on Wednesday afternoon, the city’s police commissioner, Kevin Bethel, told reporters at a news conference.

The shooting occurred around 2:30 p.m. in the city’s Parkside neighborhood, where residents were celebrating the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan before “two factions” fired at least 30 shots at each other, Bethel said.

The commissioner said an officer shot one of the gunmen, a 15-year-old boy, in the stomach before transporting him to a hospital. Four others were detained in connection to the shooting, he said.

Photos from the scene showed strollers, chairs, shoes, and clothes strewn about the street—left behind by those who fled the scene in a panic.

Citing an unnamed official, the Associated Press reported that the two shooting victims were being treated at a hospital. A police spokesperson told CBS News Philadelphia that the FBI was dispatched to the scene, as was the ATF Philadelphia Field Division.

Fire officials told the local CBS station that first responders took one person to Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.

A motive for the shooting was not immediately clear.

Najah Bey was attending celebrations with her family, she told WPVI. She detailed how chaos broke out among the “hundreds” in attendance once the sound of gunfire erupted.

“We were just running and running and one of my family members got shot in the stomach,” she said, adding that it was her cousin who was shot.

This post was originally published on Daily Beast

Share your love