PHILADELPHIA (CBS) – Eight Northeast High School students were shot in Philadelphia near a SEPTA bus station at Rising Sun and Cottman avenues shortly before 3 p.m. Wednesday, Police Commissioner Kevin Bethel said.
Bethel said the students are in the range of 15 to 17 years old. One of the students, a 16-year-old, was shot nine times in the torso and placed in critical condition. All of the other students are in stable condition, police said.
“Enough is enough,” Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle Parker said. “Every law enforcement partner that we have here in the city of Philadelphia is actively engaged and working together to ensure that every resource that is needed is readily available so that the work can be done to solve the crimes.”
Joe Lamberti / AP
Authorities are searching for three masked shooters who were inside a dark blue Hyundai Sonata with paper tags, police said.
Bethel said as the students from Northeast High were getting onto the SEPTA bus, three shooters exited the vehicle near the Dunkin’ and fired more than 30 shots.
Police released surveillance video of the shooting that shows the gunmen hopping out of the car, firing shots in the direction of a SEPTA bus and then fleeing the scene in the dark blue Hyundai.
Eleven juveniles have been shot in Philadelphia following Monday’s shooting at a bus stop in Ogontz. Bethel said it’s unclear if the two shootings are connected at this time.
“It is hard to sit here and see in three days and have 11 juveniles shot who were going and coming from school,” said Bethel, who became the police commissioner after serving as the Chief of School Safety of the School District of Philadelphia. “The cowardly acts we’ve seen over the past three days are unacceptable. The fact that we’ve had this situation — where I’ve talked about it multiple times — the downstream impact when we don’t address gun violence and don’t address guns is what we see today.”
SEPTA said a Route 18 bus and Route 67 bus were struck by gunfire in the area of Rising Sun Avenue and St. Vincent Street. According to SEPTA, no one on the bus was struck.
SEPTA Transit Police are reviewing video from the area and assisting Philly police in the investigation.
There’s no word on any arrests or motive.
Philadelphia officials say they will use every resource to solve shooting
In a press conference in the rainy weather hours after the shooting, Parker, Bethel and District Attorney Larry Krasner vowed to ramp up resources to solve the shooting and bring justice.
On her way to becoming mayor, Parker ran a campaign on making Philly the “safest, cleanest, greenest big city” in the United States and echoed that same sentiment on Wednesday.
“You need to know that we are going to do everything that we can to ensure your public health and safety, and we don’t apologize for using every legal and constitutional tool in our toolbelts in order to get that done,” Parker said.
Krasner, who was moved to tears talking about Monday’s deadly shooting in Ogontz, said his office will vigorously prosecute those responsible for the shooting.
“We will give them the consequences that they absolutely deserve for this devastating and horrifying act,” Krasner said.
Northeast High School to be virtual for rest of the week
Northeast High School will be virtual for the rest of the week following Wednesday’s shooting that left eight students wounded.
Even though the school will be virtual, the district’s emergency crisis response team will be on-site at Northeast High to help students with grief counseling and other emotional assistance, Watlington said in a release. Counselors will also be available for students at the Crossan School, about a mile away from Northeast High.
The district also has two online tools — Kooth and Lyra Health — for students and staff to access for mental health support.
“On behalf of all children and families in the school district, we are just heartbroken and angry that innocent children walking home from school would be impacted by gun violence,” Watlington said. “We agree with the mayor — enough is enough.”
Bethel “never thought” he would get shot while coming from school as a kid
During Wednesday’s press conference, Bethel reflected on his past experiences of going to Bartram High School in Southwest Philly as a teen and said it was the “safest place” he could ever be.
“I never ever thought that anyone would shoot me walking to school or kill me at the doorstep of a school, or let alone, getting on the bus two blocks down, so to those parents and those children, yeah, it’s very traumatic,” Bethel said.
Bethel also called upon parents to be more engaged with their kids as more juveniles continue to be shot in Philadelphia.
“Their parents need to get engaged,” Bethel said. “We’ve said this multiple times. I asked every parent today, go in those rooms and look at those tables and look in those closets and get those guns out of the house. Because at the end of the day, many of these kids are coming from the same communities where they’re shooting at and they know who they are. And the community knows who they are. We can’t do this by ourselves.”
Recent shootings involving SEPTA
Wednesday’s shooting wasn’t the first in Philadelphia at a SEPTA bus stop this week.
On Tuesday night, a 37-year-old man identified by police as Carmelo Drayton was fatally shot on a SEPTA bus in South Philly at the intersection of Broad Street and Snyder Avenue.
In the city’s Ogontz section on Monday, five people, including three teens were shot at a SEPTA bus stop — similar to Wednesday’s shooting.
The three teens shot, including 17-year-old Dayemen Taylor who died, were students at Imhotep Institute Charter High School. Two other victims, a 71-year-old woman and a 50-year-old, were also wounded in the shooting.
Over the weekend, police said a man was killed in the city’s Oxford Circle neighborhood after getting into an argument with someone on a SEPTA bus. When the victim got off the bus late Sunday, March 3, he was fatally shot.
“This does not just kill and harm the people who were struck with the bullets,” Krasner said. “This is a devastating, disabling, horrifying event for every child who was out here, every child who goes to that school, every parent whose child goes to that school, every person who rides public transit and a city that lives by its schools and it lives by its public transit.”
Northeast Philly community reeling after shooting
The community in the Northeast is reeling after Wednesday afternoon’s shooting.
Holly, who works at Quaker Diner near the scene, said she ran outside and saw kids who had been shot lying in the street. She described a gruesome situation.
“It’s scary, and I can’t believe it happened, to look down and see all these kids shot, laying on the ground, and it’s raining, this one kid is sitting there, holding his one friend’s head, he’s on the ground… puddles of blood around him,” she said.
He was pleading with his friend, saying, “Keep your eyes open, stay with me… you’re going to be OK,” she said.
Growing up in the area, Holly said she never worried about shootings.
Doris, who also works at the diner, said she tried to stay calm as kids ran into the restaurant seeking safety — and to help them stay calm.
“I just don’t know what these kids are thinking sometimes, killing each other, kids killing kids,” she said. “I don’t know, I guess for me I’m just glad that my kids are out of school now and are adults, and I don’t have to worry about something like this with my children, taking a bus home, just wanting to go home after school.”
