4 teens injured in Philadelphia drive-by shooting near high school
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Police say no arrest has been made and no weapon was recovered, but all four victims are in stable condition.
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A scene from the shooting (WHYY)
A city schools spokesperson has confirmed that four students were wounded in a drive-by shooting shortly after they left Overbrook High School early due to parent-teacher conferences on Wednesday morning.
The four victims are a 15-year-old girl shot in the shoulder and thigh, another 15-year-old girl shot in the shoulder, a 16-year-old boy with a graze wound to the face and a gunshot wound to the hand, and a 16-year-old boy shot in the leg.
Police stated that so far no arrest has been made and no weapon was recovered from the crime scene, but all four were in stable condition after being admitted to the hospital. A spokesperson for the Philadelphia Police Department, Officer Miguel Torres, confirmed the time of the shooting to have been at 11:30 am, adding that the teens were taken to Penn Presbyterian Medical Center and Lankenau Medical Center.
Read next: At least 12 wounded in mass shooting in Philadelphia
The district’s deputy chief of communications, Monique Braxton, relayed in a phone interview that the students were at a corner store when the shooting took place, citing the Office of School Safety.
She said, “We don't know who was targeted, if any of the four of them were targeted,” adding that the parents were being notified.
She further expressed outrage "that young people would be shot shortly after being dismissed from their high school."
Shootings in the US have been surging this year, especially around high school and college campuses, including at a school in Uvalde, Texas, a church in California, a grocery store in New York, and an Oklahoma hospital.
Philadelphia has been catching no break. In July, after an Independence Day shooting in the state, Mayor Jim Kenney decried how simple it was for individuals to obtain firearms.
He placed the blame on the US Congress, which had only recently been able to pass some moderate gun control laws in response to a wave of mass shootings across the nation, as well as the Republican-controlled state legislature, which prevents Philadelphia from enacting stricter gun control regulations.
Furthermore, the mayor criticized US gun culture and said that “we are the most armed country in world history and we’re one of the least safe. So, until Americans decide that they want to give up the guns and give up the opportunity to get guns, we’re going to have this problem."
