Man who shot himself on crowded SEPTA train will likely face charges

This post has been updated.

A 20-year-old man was hospitalized in stable condition and will likely face criminal charges after accidentally shooting himself on a SEPTA train Monday evening in Frankford.

Around 6:30 p.m., the man was on a northbound Market-Frankford Line train on Frankford Avenue near Church Street when he accidentally shot himself in his right thigh, police said.

The car he was riding in was carrying between 25 and 40 passengers at the time. He and another man — who ran off before police arrived — got off the train at Church Street, and the shooting victim collapsed in front of a nearby convenience store at the corner.

The man initially told police that a man with a dark complexion and a teardrop tattoo under his left eye shot him, but the crowd of witnesses told cops the injured man had the gun out on the train and accidentally shot himself.

Chief Inspector Scott Small said it was unclear whether the man had the gun out to show it off or possibly rob someone on the train when it accidentally went off.

Later Monday night, Small told the Daily News the man did not have a permit to carry the gun.

"If someone's carrying a gun on a train, they better have a permit to carry," he said.

Small noted that police were fortunate no one else on the packed rush-hour train was injured.

"This could have been a lot worse," he said.

The train car, which Small said did have a camera on it, continued north after the incident and stopped at Frankford Transportation Center, where it was being held as a second crime scene. SEPTA police were reviewing video from inside the car Monday night.

The man was taken to Temple University Hospital by medics and listed in stable condition. Small said detectives were interviewing the man at the hospital to determine who the man with him was and where the weapon, which police did not recover at the scene, went.