Shooting outside Philadelphia school injures 7, including 5 teens and 2-year-old girl
Police are searching for three gunmen in a shooting that injured a woman, a 2-year-old girl and five teenagers Thursday in a Philadelphia schoolyard.
Around 6 p.m., three shooters got out of a gray, four-door Hyundai Elantra near an intersection outside James G. Blaine School, then opened fire, police said.
All seven victims were hospitalized after suffering various gunshot injuries and are stable, according to police. The 2-year-old girl was shot once in the left thigh. A 17-year-old boy, two 16-year-old boys, a 15-year-old boy, a 13-year-old boy and a 31-year-old woman were also injured.
Police are searching for a motive.
"At this point we're piecing everything together to figure out if this is retaliatory, if some of those victims were intended or not, but it's still really early to tell," Philadelphia police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw told ABC6.
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Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney said he was praying for the victims.
"Schools and other public spaces must remain safe havens for youth and the community," he said on Twitter. "It’s heartbreaking and infuriating to learn of another shooting occurring on or near school grounds."
Reginald Streater, president of the Philadelphia Board of Education decried gun violence and said his thoughts are with the victims.
"Our Learners, irrespective of the type of school they attend, should NOT have to endure the direct and indirect impacts of gun violence," Streater said on Twitter.
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Speaking with reporters after the shooting, Outlaw called on the public to anonymously report when young people may illegally have guns.
"Our shooters are getting younger and younger. Our victims are getting younger and younger. And they have guns," Outlaw said, according to NBC Philadelphia.
Contact Christine Fernando at cfernando@usatoday.com or follow her on Twitter at @christinetfern.