Philly police shoot 7 suspects, 4 fatally, in 1 week
In past 24 hours, 2 other homicides and 3 non-fatal shootings have also been reported
Philadelphia police shot three suspects on Wednesday, bringing the number of officer-involved shootings in the past week to seven.
Four of those suspects, including one on Wednesday, were killed.
The Wednesday shootings were part of a violent 24 hours in the city. Late Wednesday and early this morning, two other homicides and at least three other non-fatal shootings were reported throughout Philadelphia.
The most recent officer-involved shooting happened late Wednesday, when police shot a suspect who refused to drop his weapon in Germantown at about 10 p.m.. The incident happened on Wayne Avenue near Berkeley Street, and the suspect, who was not identified, was pronounced dead at Albert Einstein Medical Center.
The fatal shooting by police was the third officer-involved shooting in Philadelphia on Wednesday. The suspects in the other shootings, which happened on the 400 block of West York Street and the 5600 block of Chester Avenue, both survived.
Those shootings came the day after Commissioner Charles Ramsey asked the U.S. Department of Justice to review the police department's use of deadly force. That request followed a Philly.com report that the number of police-involved shootings in Philadelphia skyrocketed last year.
As of this morning, Philadelphia police have been involved in 22 shootings so far in 2013. Last year, police shot 52 suspects, killing 15 of them.
Police also shot and killed a knife-wielding suspect on Saturday, fatally shot two armed suspects in separate incidents on May 22, and shot and wounded another suspect on May 23.
A number of violent incidents not involving police were also reported late Wednesday and overnight, including two homicides.
The first killing happened when a 30-year-old man was killed in a double shooting in North Philadelphia at about 8 p.m. The man was shot in the head on Cumberland Street near 17th Street. A 19-year-old man was also shot and survived.
Another deadly shooting happened overnight on the 2600 block of Jasper Street. A homicide detective said that investigators were still at the scene this morning and further details were not immediately available. The victim was a 50-year-old man who was shot in the face, according to 6ABC.
Police are also investigating at least three non-fatal shootings that occurred overnight.
Those incidents happened on the 2200 block of North Cleveland Street in North Philadelphia, the 4800 block of Whitaker Avenue in Feltonville and the 3200 block of Shelbourne Street in Kensington.
The man shot on Cleveland Street is in critical condition this morning, Central Detectives said.
The Whitaker Avenue victim was a business owner who was heading home from work, 6ABC reported, and police believe he was targeted in the shooting.
The Shelbourne Street shooting may have been the result of a drug deal gone awry, according to CBS Philadelphia.