Authorities say a man and a 10-year-old boy were killed in a drive-by shooting in Philadelphia hours after another drive-by claimed the life of a 1-year-old boy in Pittsburgh on the other side of the state — and on a violent holiday weekend that saw at least eight other homicides in Philadelphia.
Police said a 38-year-old man had just parked a car near his home in the Wissinoming section of northeast Philadelphia at about 10:30 p.m. Sunday and was still inside with the 10-year-old boy when more than a dozen shots were fired from another vehicle.
Inspector D.F. Pace told reporters that at least 13 rounds came from two separate weapons, striking both victims multiple times. The man and boy were taken to separate hospitals where both were pronounced dead. Their names haven’t been released.
On the other side of the commonwealth, in western Pennsylvania, police announced an arrest in the downtown Pittsburgh drive-by shooting death of a child identified by the Allegheny County medical examiner’s office as 1-year-old DeAvry Thomas.
Authorities said the child was killed by gunfire at an intersection not far from Market Square and the PPG Place complex at around 2:45 p.m. Sunday. Assistant Chief Lavonnie Bickerstaff said neither the child nor his mother were the intended target. Officials said the vehicle had been recovered in the city’s Troy Hill neighborhood and on Monday announced homicide and criminal conspiracy charges against 26-year-old Londell Falconer. It was unclear whether Falconer had an attorney; messages could not be left Monday at numbers listed for that name.
In the Port Richmond neighborhood of northeast Philadelphia just after 1 a.m. Monday, two women were shot to death at a party and two other people were wounded, including a 14-year-old girl.
In north Philadelphia shortly before 9:30 p.m. Sunday, another shooting killed a 56-year-old man and wounded a 33-year-old woman. An unidentified man was gunned down in a different part of north Philadelphia just after 1 a.m. Monday and a 66-year-old man was killed in another part of north Philadelphia shortly before 5 a.m. Monday.
In the second of three homicides Saturday, a 34-year-old man was shot multiple times at about 10:15 a.m. in East Germantown and later died at a hospital, and two women leaving a funeral service were also hit by the gunfire, one injured critically, a police representative told The Philadelphia Inquirer.
